


Spirit Buddies

by Froggy (Tartha), Tartha



Category: One Piece
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe Macguffin, Animal Companions, Fluff, Gen, Gen Masquerading As Ship, Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M, Mystery Fog, Nakamaship, Spirit Animals, macguffin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2018-07-29 17:43:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7693591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tartha/pseuds/Froggy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tartha/pseuds/Tartha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoro and Sanji are forced to admit that they might be closer than they think when a Mystery Fog has the crew seeing their Soul Animals for the first time. Luckily, Robin always knows more than she says, Luffy takes everything in stride, and the rest of the crew can put up with a lot of [friendly] abuse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Happy Animal Piles

**Author's Note:**

> http://frida-lovetmnt.tumblr.com/ and I participated in an art trade for DarkChibiShadow’s Zosan Month: June 2016. Her request was for Zoro and Sanji caring for each other. Turns out all I write is violence... So this was quite the challenge! Somehow "caring for each other" turned into over 11000 words of Spirit Animal shenanigans.
> 
> Had a bit of a Life Experience which put my writing on hold for a while, but I'm back! Update should be in the first half of December.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Setting is tackled.

Robin had been able to see spirit animals since before she could walk. The ability was granted by a recessive gene found in approximately 5% of the population of Ohara. Now, it was found in only one place: somewhere vaguely east of Fishman Island, anchored in the small cove outside of an island called Ghoulop. Or, more precisely, aboard the _Sunny Go_.

 

Robin turned a page and took a moment to glance around the harbor; eyes opened and disappeared in whorls of flower petals across the _Sunny_ , and throughout the docks. After the flurry of petals had passed, she smiled and opened _her_ eyes. After a moment of reserved contemplation she returned her attention to the book she had picked up in the quiet town.

 

She had relieved Usopp from watch when they had gathered together for lunch, and he had been grateful for the chance to explore the peaceful town. She had been quietly thankful for the opportunity to sit on the deck and read her new book without any distractions. It was about soul theory, the ties between people, soulmates, spirit animals, and devil fruit.

 

Once, the Ohara Archives had, had extensive texts about “spirit animals.” The topic was treated as a phenomenon similar to that of the Klabautermann; a “mysterious” occurrence which was well-documented, but not well-studied.

 

Her mother had once told her that it was best to not mention the animal companions: it was unclear whether they were a projection of the viewer’s perception of the person the animal was associated with (the animals only appeared after the viewer spent some time in the company of the person), or if they were a constant reality. Regardless, the mentioning of them tended to yield awkward or uncomfortable results.

  
  
Robin had learned, through the years, that some spirit animals could take multiple forms. Usually, if a person was of a certain willpower or temperament, their animal would have two or more forms. The more she saw of the world, the more she suspected that those capable of wielding _Haki_ were the ones whose animals most commonly took multiple forms. It seemed true of _her_ crew, anyway.

 

One of the many reasons she had been drawn to the Strawhats, originally--those few years ago--had been that she could see their Spirit Animals the first time she met them. In fact, even the Strawhats that had joined the crew after her had been rare cases where she could immediately see their animal companions. Luffy had an eye and, what appeared to be, an instinctual understanding for things no one else could see. _Or really_ , she reflected, _for things even_ he _couldn't see._

 

Robin set her book in her lap, took a sip of the fizzy mint drink that Sanji had left for her before he had disappeared into town, and glanced around the harbor once again. A large black heron--sneaky, dangerous, attuned to the wind and waves--swooped low over the rooftops. Robin watched the swoop and glide of the bird until it disappeared down into the low streets between buildings.

 

\- - -

 

The thin older woman blinked through thick glasses at Nami, “What way is your logpost directing you?”

  
  
Nami looked up from the clothes’ racks and then glanced down at her wrist, “Why?”

  
  
“Well, Miss, if you’re headed slightly _up_ you’ve caught the floating island’s pull. It moves, and so every now-and-then people will be drawn to it instead of Ishnari--the next island: they’ve got great sheep, a little place, just a week’s travel nor’east of here.”

 

“...And if I’ve caught the pull of the floating island?”

  
  
“You should be careful. There’s a low-hanging mist that surrounds the island. It drives people mad: they hear voices, see things.”

 

Nami rolled her eyes, and gave the older woman a flat look, “ _Things_.”

 

The woman nodded, “Things.”

 

Nami’s eyes widened slightly in irritation, and she parroted back at the woman, “Things.”

 

Now the older lady seemed confused. She tilted her head like a bewildered owl, “Things…?”

 

With a sigh, Nami leaned forward, “So, how long do travelers need to stay here to let their logpost lose the floating island and catch, uh, the sheep island?”

 

“No one’s ever managed to make it switch over to Ishnari after it points to the floating island. If you’ve ended up with it though… They say that there’s a great treasure, and so you can often trade it for--Miss? Miss, where are you going?”

 

\- - -

 

As the rest of the Strawhats returned to the ship, Robin smiled and her eyes followed the flight of the bright stained-glass wings of a giant dragonfly none of her companions could see. It was the first to return, but refused to settle; flitting around the ship, assessing for danger and comfort. It had a keen eye for both.

 

Nami stood in the center of the lawn, her arms crossed, with her weight shifting back and forth between her feet. She had something of interest to share with the rest of the crew: probably something involving treasure. Her fingers tapped out an impatient staccato rhythm against her biceps.

 

“Yaaa-hooooo!”

 

There was a familiar _twang!_ accompanied by a high-pitched scream, followed by a _smash-wham!_ and then, “Hee-Shihihihihi!” as Luffy--with Chopper an unwilling passenger--crashed onto the lawn.

  
  
The baby elephant following close behind Chopper, materialized at the edge of the lawn, trumpeted in amusement and waddled over to the small reindeer. Gently, it patted Chopper’s helmet with its trunk, and then skipped happily around the pair.

 

The black heron wheeled in tighter and tighter circles overhead.

 

The red colobus-- _Procolobus kirkii_ \--which had been flung onto the the boat with the two youngest members of the crew, rolled around happily; seemingly unaware of the circling bird. It laughed, leapt onto the back of the little elephant, and then flung itself at the green tiger which had just returned to the ship. Before it collided with the large cat, it stretched, transformed, and it was no longer a small monkey, but a staggeringly large lion. Briefly, it flattened the tiger under its weight, and then lazily rolled over and off of the other giant cat. The tiger headbutted the lion goodnaturedly, and the lion rolled around on the grass in a lazy pile of King of the Jungle. _Or Pirates, as the case may be._

 

The black heron landed on Nami’s shoulder, shuddered, and shrank down into a pack rat. It wiggled its small nose, and proceeded to run tiny paws over its nose and ears to clean itself. _Definitely treasure._

 

A golden fox appeared gracefully on the railing of the ship, and with a fluid movement, ran along the siding until it could reach Robin. When it did, it made a small, happy, noise in greeting, and then scampered over to the green tiger where it proceeded to jump onto the large cat’s face. There was a brief kerfuffle which ended with the fox burrowed into the shoulder fur of the tiger, and the tiger sprawled lazily against the lion.

 

\- - -

 

Spirit Animals rarely touched people they did not belong to. Even among most of the Strawhats it was rare. It happened--Robin was fairly certain that she had, had occasion to come into contact with every one of their animals--but, generally, they stayed apart. She had a feeling that, even if you were the closest of nakama, it was unnerving, or--perhaps-- _too much_ to be in direct contact with a part of another person’s soul. Brief contact was fine, but prolonged contact had the potential to be overwhelming.

 

There was, however, one notable exception: it seemed that Sanji’s spirit animal preferred Zoro’s company to that of the chef, and that Zoro’s spirit animal spent as much time with Sanji as possible.

  
  
The first time she had noticed, she had been taken aback. She had thought for months that Sanji’s Spirit Animal was a shark; swimming with the cook whenever he took to the sea. She had thought that Zoro’s was a fox. When she had first met the Strawhats, she had noticed the small golden animal curled around Zoro’s neck, and draped over his shoulders like an exotic fashion accessory.

  
  
When she had joined the crew as they left Alabasta, she had noticed that Zoro napped with a fluffy yellow duck in his lap. She had found it immensely entertaining that such a strong man should have such a soft spirit companion. Despite the incongruity, she hadn’t doubted that the small animal was Zoro's.

  
  
It wasn’t until Fireworks Island that she realized her mistake. For the first time, she got to see the Strawhats mingling with people that did not want them dead, were not oppressed, and did not owe any of Strawhats for rescuing them. She was a silent and amused witness to how the crew interacted with “normal” people.

 

After their initial foray into town, they had gone to gather Zoro so that he could participate in the festival as well. It had been an entertaining evening. When the crew had stopped in the town square so that they could rest their feet and enjoy street food, she had taken the time to note the location of their various spirit animals.

 

The most obvious animals were Zoro’s colossal green tiger, which paced through the square keeping a wane eye on the locals; and Luffy’s monkey, which leapt from cart to cart eyeballing the food and peaking behind curtains.

 

Sanji’s spirit animal was nowhere in sight. The man himself was flitting from cart to wagon and finding the most intriguing and delicious treats to bring back to the rest of his nakama. From seemingly thin air he managed to materialize a leg of some huge animal for Luffy to gnaw on. For Robin and Nami he brought brightly colored ice cream confectioneries, he even found a cloud of cotton candy for Chopper. With a casual flourish, he delivered both a cup of _kukku bajji_ and an aspersion of Zoro’s character to the swordsman.

 

After socializing and snacking, Robin sat back from the conversation, letting herself enjoy the lively presence of the Strawhat crew and their animals. What she saw left her speechless.

 

Sanji was sitting in a circle of tittering women, but he was leaning back _against_ the giant green tiger. _It boggled the mind._ Robin looked over to where Zoro was drinking from a tankard and listening to Chopper talk, and--sure enough--draped over his shoulders was his almost constant companion: the large golden fox.

  
  
He had, had the fox on him earlier… In fact, it was around him so often that she hadn’t noticed that it was present at the _same time_ as the green tiger.

 

As she watched, Zoro stood up and accompanied Chopper to a stall selling festival masks. He talked with Chopper for a while; it seemed that they were discussing which ones would be good for the crew. Eventually, he laughed and handed the vender a couple Berī, and he was given a round panda mask. They walked away from the stall and Chopper gestured excitedly to Zoro, speaking enthusiastically and grinning widely.  Zoro nodded, and the reindeer scampered off in the direction of Luffy. Zoro smiled for a moment, and then turned and strode purposefully over to Sanji.

  
  
“Love-Cook, time to go see the fireworks.”

  
  
Sanji cooed at the ladies arrayed around him, “Nothing could be as exquisite as these ladies! They truly are the most breathtaking fireworks I’ve ever laid eyes on!”

  
  
This statement was met with general giggling, and one woman laughed, “Oh! Sanji-san, you haven’t seen our fireworks yet! They really are quite lovely.”

  
  
Sanji didn’t miss a beat, “Of course! This island must have amazingly talented ladies to make such--”

  
  
Zoro leaned forward and held the mask against the side of Sanji’s face--effectively cutting off the torrent of praise.

 

Sanji turned to dislodge the mask and yell at Zoro, but yelped when Zoro reached around the blonde and snapped the rubber tie into place. Zoro grinned as Sanji gaped at him, and the women tittered happily, “It fits you!”

 

“Oh, a panda, how nice.”

 

“Keep it, Sanji-san.”

 

“Who’s your friend?”

  
  
Sanji stood regally, adjusted his suit, and smirked triumphantly at Zoro as if to say, ‘ _Your plan has failed: the girls_ like _it_ !’ The fox that had been draped over Zoro’s shoulders leapt to Sanji’s shoulders, and then down to the shoulder of the green tiger where it affectionately nuzzled against the large beast. Sanji spaired Zoro a scaithing look before he turned to wish the ladies a good evening; he needed to return to his nakama.

  
  
As he did so, the tiger headbutted Sanji’s hip impatiently and Sanji moved with the motion back towards the rest of the Strawhats. The tiger, looking mighty pleased with itself, returned to Zoro’s side as they walked towards the docks to see the fireworks. The fox remained curled up on the back of the tiger, enjoying the view of the fireworks from the comfort of its green throne.

 

\- -

 

After that evening, Robin was sure to track the creatures carefully. The duck, she was now certain, was Sanji’s spirit animal--usually taking the form of a soft yellow duck so that it could sit on or around Zoro when Zoro was covered in bandages. Something, she noted, which appeared to be a worrisomely common occurrence.

 

While the tiger often appeared aloof, if Sanji actually sat down with the rest of the crew (a rare occurrence), it was more than likely that some part of him would be unconsciously resting against the green feline. On more than one occasion, Robin caught a glimpse of a kudaryōjin at the cuffs of Sanji’s suit.

 

Eventually, Robin knew both Sanji and Zoro’s spirit animals’ patterns: If Zoro was napping or lounging on deck, Sanji’s fox would be using his shoulders as a couch. If Sanji was cooking--chopping, frying, mincing, scraping, smashing, carving--the kudaryōjin would be wrapped around one of his arms or his neck like an exotic piece of jewelry.

  
  
Robin wondered (amusedly, but not seriously), watching their interactions, if it hadn’t started as a way of harassing each other: one of the closest and most intimate bonds she had ever witnessed between spirit animals, and their humans spent their time bickering. Of course, with the insight gleaned from the animals, Robin was much more aware of the affection between her two crewmates than anyone else appeared to be; including (she was sure) each of the men in question.

 

\- - -

 

Faster than her eye could track, Luffy’s lion transformed back into the small red-backed monkey and threw itself against the large golden fox. The giant ground sloth--largest of the Strawhat spirit animals--curled around the growing pile of animals on the deck, and closed its eyes contentedly. Nami’s pack rat leapt down and threw itself bodily onto the pile. The brightly colored dragonfly finally landed, alighting on the head of the monkey. And with a tired ‘woof’ the ship’s ancient akita flopped down on the pile as well, panting happily. The tiger’s tail twitched, but the beast didn’t complain about his position at the bottom of the heap.

 

Robin blinked at the animal pile (a somewhat common occurrence), and then directed her attention to Nami who had begun to speak, “So, we’ll be going through this dangerous fog… Which makes people _see_ _things_ , and then we’ll reach the floating island which is known to have a hidden treasure!”

 

Robin mused, “I wonder if it’s not cursed?”

 

“Ho-ho-ho! How exciting! I hope it’s not guarded by skeletons!”

 

Usopp frowned, “Wait. What, what was that first part? Wha-wha-uh… What will the fog make us see?”

  
  
Nami flapped a hand dismissively, her eyes already alight with the possibilities of untold treasure, “Who knows? _‘Things_.'”

“ _Mystery_ fog!”

 

Franky considered, “Sounds like a hallucinogen. I might be able to make an air-tight chamber...”

  
  
Chopper jumped up and down, scolding Franky, “That’s dangerous! _This_ is dangerous! We’ll need a doctor to take a sample before anyone breathes it in!”

 

“ _Mystery_ sample!”

 

Robin smiled, “Chopper, you are the ship’s doctor.”

  
Usopp nodded, suddenly much more comfortable with the whole proposal, “Yes. Of course, I always thought a sample was a good idea. I might be able to utilize the--”

 

Nami cut him off before he could get too carried away, “--so we’ll need to ask around and see what we can find out about the treasure. We’ll leave tomorrow!”

 

She clapped her hands together, and the crew was--for all practical purposes--dismissed. Chopper, Usopp, Luffy, and Brook debated the ‘mystery fog,’ while Franky meandered off; presumably to his workshop below deck where he could plan for an (inadvisable) air-tight chamber. With a flourish, Sanji praised both women, turned and threatened the men against entering the kitchen, lazily kicked towards Zoro who was napping in his path, _‘When had he fallen asleep?’_ and disappeared to complete inventorying the supplies he had picked up from the town.

  
  
The crew’s animals eventually wandered away from their pile. As usual, Robin noted that the fox stayed plastered to the tiger’s head. She smiled, returned to her seat on the upper deck, and continued her reading.

 

\- - -

 

It was decided that dinner should be an island affair, and the Strawhats hit the town. The _Sunny_ was docked in a private cove, and the crew-- _en masse_ \--descended upon the town. With none of the locals in obvious duress, the crew was free to befriend, bother, and surprise the townsfolk at their leisure.

  
  
Most of the crew had ended their exploration of the town in the local alehouse. Even Zoro had managed--somehow--to arrive shortly after the rest of the crew (although he had a tick to his face that suggested that his had been an interesting afternoon).

 

Sanji, surrounded by beautiful women, flirted and gossiped, while his spirit animal prowled the bar for snippets of information and hints as to what their next adventure would entail. The green tiger stayed near the door like a silent sentinel, watching and waiting; assessing and preparing for an unexpected calamity.

 

Robin turned her attention to the task at hand and smiled at the bartender, “So, tell me a bit about this floating island. We were thinking of trading for one of those logposts that point towards it.”

  
The woman grinned, flashing gold-plated teeth, “Ya might not want t’go girly. Ya see, no one is the same after they pass through the mists. I mean, ya stop seein’ and hearin’ the visions, but ya ne’er forget ‘em.”

 

Robin crossed her legs and tilted her head just so, “And what _are_ these visions?”

  
  
“Don’t rightly know, m’self.” The scraggly woman rubbed a hand against the back of her neck and squinted at the ceiling as though it had the answers, “Just knows it about drives people mad.”

 

From behind Robin came a deep sweeping sound, and Robin hid a grin behind one of her hands, she didn’t have to turn to know that Usopp, standing atop a chair on top of one of the bar tables was gesturing emphatically: he had a captive audience. The Roc, hunched in such a small space, unfurled its colossal wings, and--just as the storyteller’s tales did--managed to take up the entire room.

  
She smiled happily at the bartender, “We’re all a little mad.”

 

The woman looked taken aback for a moment, and then grinned crookedly, “All the best folks are!”

 

\- - -  
  
Throughout the next day they researched in earnest. It seemed that no one on the island was a survivor of the mist. Not a soul could describe to the crew just _what_ they were going to be facing, or experiencing, in the fog. To a man, however, the townsfolk _insisted_ that it was dangerous.

 

They did, however, manage to find some interesting information regarding the treasure. Hidden at the base of a grove of trees shaped like a “W,” they would actually be _digging_ for honest-to-Roger buried treasure.

 

Supposedly, a pirate captain by the name of Marvelous Helen had sailed these waters some fifty years ago, and she had specialized in raiding armored capital vessels. Since all the currency she stole was undoubtedly government coinage, and since it could be easily traced back to “Marvelous Helen,” she had, had to hide it so that she could return to the stash once the government stopped searching for it.

 

She had been, by all accounts, a local--originally from the sheep-famous island of Ishnari--and her given name was Lyra. She had traveled all the seas and had seen the world, but--because she knew that there was no way of accessing the floating island between Ghoulop and her hometown, except by arriving at Ghoulop at very particular times (or having an eternal pose)--she returned to her home islands to establish her secret base.

 

It was rumored that Marvelous Helen led a double life: that of a notorious pirate, and that of a Marine Vice Admiral: Lyra Scoresby. Due to her association with the Marines, she never did manage to retrieve her vast wealth, and so--to this day--it remained unclaimed.

 

There were some oddities to the story, and some contradictions, but enough of the legend was repeated to various members of the crew (from a variety of sources), that it added some credibility to the outrageous claims. The exaggerated bits: that she could fell an opponent while wielding a dagger at fifty paces, that she could know the heart of a man simply by looking him in the eye, that she was telepathic, or that she could spit fire & acid all came from _different_ sources, and seemed somewhat more _un_ likely.  
  
\- - -

 

On a more practical level, Franky learned that the island was--most likely, approximately--ten hours away from Ghoulop. Nami recommended that they sail through the night, and approach the island early the next day. Brook offered to man the _Sunny_ overnight, " _It’s a skeleton crew!_ "

 

As the Strawhats approached the island, Brook was “dozing” in the bunk room while everyone else gathered on the lawn. The “Mystery Fog”--a name which was increasingly looking like it was going to be permanent--was a solid bank of clouds which rose several hundred feet into the sky in a conical shape that looked like a tornado turned on its head. Or maybe the top of an ice cream treat.

 

Whisps of the fog, stray tendrils that hung in the air in an unnaturally slow rotation, reached about fifty feet out from the main body of clouds. Nami assured the crew that the island _was_ moving, but that it seemed to be steadily heading away from them, and as long as they kept an angled course, they’d be able to avoid being uncontrollably swept into the cloud bank.

 

Chopper, with the aid of both Usopp and Franky, managed to gather a small vial of the cloud stuff. It dissipated shortly after leaving the main column, and required several tries to gather enough that he could condense it into a studiable sample. But even then the small pool of translucent purple liquid did not survive long and evaporated at a rapid rate.

 

After several hours of testing (and several new samples), Chopper determined that the fog was not toxic. In fact, he could not find any trace substances within the fog that would suggest that it was anything other than colored water.

 

Was it odd, its properties nonsensical, and did it seem to break the physical laws of nature? _Yes_.

 

In the end, Chopper managed to find hint traces of an “element” which he described as, “pertaining to Devil Fruits.” He wasn’t _happy_ with the final conclusion, because it didn’t clear up the issue of the fog being dangerous: it just verified that it was nothing that he’d know how to deal with (other than flushing an individual’s system and waiting).

 

Not knowing the nature of the fog made him cautious, but the curiosity of most of the crew (namely Luffy), overrode caution easily. Both Luffy and Nami’s enthusiasm raised the spirits of the crew, and by mid-afternoon they were ready to take the plunge.

 

Brook joined the living (yohohoho), and they braced themselves for, “ _Things_.”

 

\- - -

 

The first thing that Robin noticed was the small ball of fur perched on her shoulder. The animal’s head swiveled around, seemed to grin at her, and then nuzzled into her neck happily. ‘ _Ah_ ' she thought, ‘ _Of course it’s a mongoose._ ' And a moment after that, ‘ em>Oh. You see ‘things’.'

 

\- - -

 

The fog made a curiously intimate experience even more personal. You couldn’t see an arm-length in front of you, and the sounds of the ship seemed muffled in the clouds. Each crew member was suddenly confronted by a living piece of themselves. For the faint of heart, the sudden bone-deep understanding that each person had their own constant companion might be overwhelming. For the Strawhats, it was an intriguing experience, but hardly one worth going mad over.

 

The moment, while deeply personal, and oddly revealing, seemed to stretch for an eternity in the fog. Of course, in actuality, the experience lasted only a few short seconds, and then was abruptly shattered by Luffy’s excited yell of, “ _Amazing_!”

 

This was followed shortly by Usopp’s panicked shout of, “We’re all going to die!”

 

 _Oh dear,_ Robin thought, _he must have been in his Roc shape._

  
  
Brook’s exclamation of, “Oh, you’re so delightful. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Was almost entirely blocked out by Chopper’s yell, “How are there suddenly so many of you?!”

 

This was followed by, “Watch where you’re going, Marimo.” And “Tch, idiot cook, you’re the one that ran into me.”

  
  
There was a high pitch shriek followed by a small trumpeting and then Nami, “Franky, was that you?”

  
  
Franky’s answer was pained, “I touched something wet and slimey!”

 

This broke any tension that might have been building, and the crew began laughing.

  
  
Slowly, the fog cleared as the ship sailed out of the white mist, toward a small, nondescript, island that appeared to be floating on a layer of fog approximately five feet (1.5 meters) off of the ocean’s surface. The ship, now bathed in the bright afternoon sun, sailed with 18 beings instead of the usual 9. The Strawhats had been confronted--rather abruptly--with their spirit animals.

 

With the tall mass of fog behind them, they were free to gawk. Robin restrained Luffy when the captain began to make grabby-hands at the exotic creatures that were suddenly populating his ship. Her voice brooked no argument as she addressed the crew, “For the time being, I recommend refraining from touching them. It would be a shame if we were to accidently damage someone’s soul.”

  
  
Through the moment of shock that this declaration caused came muffled laughter, and the crew turned to observe Sanji whose eyes were watering as he tried not to laugh out loud. With the crew suddenly looking at him he could hold his laughter in no longer and burst into loud guffaws, “It’s green!” With this declaration he fell to the deck in amusement.

  
The attention that had been directed at Sanji swiveled and took in the massive green tiger standing beside Zoro. There was some general chortling, and then a rampant epidemic of laughter. Zoro blushed hotly and looked away from his ridiculous crew.

 

Usopp, grinning wildly, managed to clear his throat, and pat Zoro consolingly on the shoulder, “It’s still a tiger.”

  
  
Looking mollified, Zoro _tsked_ at Sanji--still rolling on the deck--and crossed his arms. The tiger gently headbutted him, and he eyed the beast warily. He wondered, idly, if it would be possible to train with it.

 

Nami turned from rubbing the fluffy chin of her packrat to look at Robin, “What do you mean we might accidentally damage someone’s soul?”

  
  
“They might _what_?!” Evidently, Usopp had missed Robin’s earlier warning.

  
  
“They’re Spirit Animals. Representations of a person’s soul.”

  
  
Zoro’s permanent scowl increased, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to duel your own soul; he wouldn’t want to damage it, chances are he needed it to complete his goal. Of course, if the tiger was _his_ soul, it was probably indestructible. After all, he did quite a bit of meditating, and strengthening of the soul, or spirit, or whatever.

 

\- - -

 

To be fair, Luffy lasted at _least_ five minutes before his curiosity trumped his willpower. He yanked on the monkey’s tail, the monkey stole his hat, and--with the help of all the other spirit animals--managed to create an amazing game of keep away.

 

Over the course of the game, Luffy managed to jump on the back of the baby elephant, use the giant sloth as a slingshot, dump himself on top of the tiger, and step on the tail of the akita. Avoiding putting weight on the poor old dog’s tail, Luffy tripped and tipped over the railing--only to be caught by the gargantuan Roc. The bird dumped him unceremoniously on the deck, and the crew breathed a sigh of relief as the monkey toddled over and dropped the hat back on Luffy’s head.

The crew reacted to Luffy suddenly coming into contact with their animals with a general fondness. Luffy seemed completely unaffected, but each crew member ended up with wide smiles ranging from rueful and indulgent to dopy and amused. Luffy felt like an electric ray of sunlight; a huge personality that would eclipse lesser souls. But he was their nakama--their captain--and each crew member found that, instead of shrouding them in his brilliance, Luffy acted as an amplifier which made each stronger in turn.

 

\- - -

  
There was an unspoken agreement that on this first day the crew would moor on the island, and exploration would happen tomorrow. _After_ they had gotten a handle on suddenly having spirit animals. Robin, in particular, thought this was a wise decision. When complaints were made (mostly by Luffy, who took the whole experience in stride), she was quick to assure him that there was quite a bit of adventure to be had aboard the _Sunny_ , given the addition of twice the amount of normal crew members.

 

When a spirit animal touched someone they didn’t “belong to” it sent a _zing!_ of energy to that person, and both individuals had a close impression of each other. As nakama, the crew was able to deal with the odd intimacy of the act, but the intensity of the connection increased when you concentrated on it, and meant that it was not something that was sought out after initial curiosity had been sated.

  
The animals seemed thrilled to get to interact with the crew, and spent a good deal of time attempting to speak with Chopper. Chopper said that he could _almost_ understand what they were saying, but that the “language” they used was different than normal animals. He was more likely to get impressions of what they _wanted to say_ than exact words. He had admitted to Robin that the language was probably more advanced than any he spoke.

  
  
“Perhaps, Doctor-san, it is more primitive than any language you speak.”

 

Chopper shook his head in wonderment and laughed at the bright dragonfly that had flown over to comfort him. From across the ship, Usopp grinned at Chopper, and shook his head in wonderment.

  
When the animals came into contact with each other, there was still a feeling of _closeness_ between crewmates, but it was something which the crew was already familiar with. Being able to see the interactions made the moments more obvious, but they were by no means uncomfortable.

  
  
Shortly after the crew began circulating amongst each other, Sanji made his way over to Robin. The fox was wrapped tightly around his neck and draped across his shoulders. There was a tension in the body of the fox which was not normally present when it lounged on Zoro’s broad back. Sanji’s concern was almost palpable to Robin who was familiar with the body language of both the man and the spirit animal.

  
  
“Robin-chwaan~! Do you think that they’ll need to eat?” He smiled broadly, and cocked his head to the side in inquiry, but the watchful eyes of the fox betrayed the deeper importance of the question.

  
  
“Sanji-san.” Robin smiled softly, “I’m afraid I don’t know. It’s unlikely that they’ll starve and die because you can’t feed them.”

  
  
Sanji’s eyes bugged widely, and looked completely petrified for a moment before Zoro’s great green tiger came up from behind him and headbutted his hip. He turned to scold whoever had run into him, his eyes immediately seeking out Zoro from across the deck, and the biting remark that was on the tip of his tongue was cut off by a harsh intake of breath. He looked down from Zoro to the tiger, and one of his hands fluttered to the lapel of his suit where he it gripped it with white knuckles. He licked his lips and took a deep breath, his cheeks flushing slightly, and his brow knit into a small frown.

  
  
Before he could formulate a response to what was happening, Zoro spoke up from his spot against the railing, “As if you wouldn’t ply your poison on even _more_ of the crew given the opportunity.”

 

“What did you say, shithead?” And, just like that, the spell was broken. Spirit animals momentarily forgotten, Sanji launched himself at Zoro from across the deck. Mid-flight the blonde burst into a bright halo of fire, and when his shoes slammed into Zoro’s blades there was a shower of sparks. Zoro rotated his blades against the fine shoes, and Sanji kicked himself up and over Zoro’s shoulders--bending forward and grabbing the railing that Zoro had been leaning against. Using his hands as an anchor point, Sanji swiveled his hips and brought his feet down in a sweeping arch towards Zoro’s head. Jumping back, Zoro avoided the scythe of deadly flesh, and waited for an opening.

  
  
As Sanji tilted his hips to begin a new strike, Zoro saw his chance. He darted forward, and blocked the cook’s powerful legs with the flats of his blades. He tossed the legs up and away from him; rolling his shoulders with the force of the impact. Zoro pushed himself forward with the momentum gained from colliding with Sanji, and shouldered the cook’s torso, hoping to send the slender-- _less slender now_ \--frame flying into the water below.

 

Unfortunately, the sneaky cook was just as flexible as Zoro should have known he was, and Sanji’s spine followed the push of Zoro’s shoulder without tossing the cook into the water. Sanji picked up one of his hands from the railing, and rotated his body to spin with Zoro’s bull rush. Sanji, now performing a one-handed handstand on the railing, and facing away from Zoro, used his precarious position to his advantage and fell forward, curling in on himself, and bringing a heel straight over the railing and squarely into Zoro’s solar plexus. There was a rush of air from between the swordsman’s lips. Sanji grinned at Zoro triumphantly and hooked his free leg over the back of Zoro’s neck.

 

Zoro had a moment to contemplate Sanji’s triumphant grin before he was unceremoniously flipped ass-over-head and dumped over the side of the ship.

  
  
Zoro fell through a thick layer of the white fog, and hit the water with a mighty splash. He surfaced and snorted water out of his nose, and blinked his eyes through the sudden sting of salt. Shaking water from his hair he started swimming back towards the ship, intent on resuming the fight.

 

He stopped when he noticed a fin cutting towards him in the water. Curious, he held out his hand and let his fingers run against the harsh skin of the shark.

 

His spirit animal, because there was no doubt in his mind that the shark was _his_ , nudged his fingers, and pushed him towards the ship.

 

There was a shout, followed by a nearby splash, and then Zoro was laughing at the irrate cook, bobbing in the water, teeth still clenched around a soggy cigarette. The cook spluttered and swam towards the ship, cursing all the while, “Shitty spirit animal.”

 

He raised his voice and shouted up at the ship, “Just because you’re a part of me doesn’t mean that I can’t fry you up into a nice stew.”

 

Usopp’s voice came over the edge of the _Sunny_ , and filtered through the fog, “You guys alright down there?”

  
  
Zoro was fairly certain that he heard Nami, “Oh, just leave them.”

 

For the first time since he had been thrown in the water, Sanji looked over to Zoro, his eyes lit up and he grinned at the rumpled swordsman. He threw back his head and laughed, all irritation forgotten. Seeing Zoro out of sorts was one of his favorite things. And Zoro looked _quite_ out-of-sorts: his hair was standing up every which way, and his robes were floating around him like a colony of green algae (possibly following its leader), and he looked like he hadn’t been expecting the freezing temperature of the water.

 

Zoro eyed the cook. The blonde’s hair was matted to his face, his suit was an expanse of wrinkles and salt stains, and he was convulsing with laughter; barely bobbing above the surface of the water. A huge sunny grin complimented his bright eyes perfectly. _Well, the idiot clearly didn’t need to breathe._

 

Zoro, barely containing a grin of his own, splashed water over the laughing blonde. This was followed by violent sputtering, an undulation of the cook’s body, and a veritable _tidal wave_ of water kicked at Zoro and into the air with Sanji’s powerful legs.

 

Seeing his cold and breathless future ahead of him, Zoro dove into the wave to meet it head-on. Once under the water he opened his eyes against the stinging salt, spotted a length of black-clad leg, and pulled the other man under the surface.

 

This was followed by much thrashing about and eventual retaliation. The two men spent several minutes attempting to drown one another, or possibly splash each other into submission. Neither was terribly effective in their attempts, and the “fight” was punctuated by side-splitting laughter.

 

The shark, having circled away from the pair, swam back and nudged Sanji towards the ship. Sanji turned to look at the huge beast, and reached out a hand towards it. The shark nuzzled into the cook’s hand, and Zoro’s breath caught at the sensation. _So close. His hands. Trust._

 

Sanji turned to grab the rope hanging down from the ship. He spared Zoro a brief, completely indecipherable glance, and then hurried up the side of the ship. Perhaps the chef was as confused and effected as Zoro was. Zoro watched him go, treading water, and waiting for the black shoes to disappear into the fog. He would have stayed in the water a moment longer, but his shark nudged him impatiently, and he was suddenly _very_ aware of how cold the water was.

  
  
Sanji’s voice came over the edge of the ship, and Zoro could swear he heard the smirk through the fog, “Don’t miss dinner because you’re too busy playing with your shark, Mosshead.”

 

\- - -

 

Spirit animals, it turned out, did not _need_ to eat. And it seemed that even with the white fog, they were not always entirely tangible. However, this did not stop Luffy’s small monkey from putting away almost as much as food as Luffy did. And, as predicted, Sanji dealt with the added mouths without any trouble.

 

During Usopp’s post-dinner story (an unofficial gathering that happened on a semi-regular basis), his small dragonfly transformed into the mighty Roc. Usopp, still adjusting to the idea that such a gigantic and intimidating bird was _his_ , squawked and fell off the barrel which functioned as his impromptu podium--immediately leaping to the top of Franky’s shoulders in a blur of panicked scrambling.

 

The resulting amusement was taken in stride, and the crew--tired out from the adventure of meeting _themselves_ \--crashed on the deck. Luffy declared that it was nice enough to warrant a “camp out,” and the entire crew was enthralled by the sudden appearance of hanging lanterns and brightly colored tarps that Franky seemed to materialize out of thin air. The bright decorations hung across the deck of the _Sunny_ and splashed the dark night in color and light.

 

After finishing the dishes, Sanji brought out hot chocolate and hot buttered rum for the crew, along with individual servings of ice cream. There were exclamations and praise from most, and he twirled happily under the gratitude of the women.

 

Eventually, Brook started up a round of singing, and the crew yelled and sang until they were hoarse.

  
  
As the night wore on, the crew began to doze off. Luffy lay sprawled across his lion, covered in playing cards, and snoring loudly into the night sky. Usopp, lying near the feet of the lion, held up his hand to look at the sky through the brightly colored wings of his dragonfly perched on a fingertip.

  
Thin blankets adorned most of the crew (courtesy of some disembodied hands). Robin lay on her reclining sun chair, a small lamp on the table near her and silently read. The hand not holding the book gently scratched at the mongoose she had finally gotten to meet. Franky muttered equations and rumbled quietly to himself in his sleep. Chopper had crashed on Franky’s chest, and Brook was sprawled haphazardly against the cyborg.

 

Nami opted for her bed, shaking her head at the huge pile which her nakama--plus their spirit animals--created. However, before turning from the railing and disappearing into the ladies’ bedroom, she spotted something interesting.

 

She had noticed, throughout the day, that most of the animals had been staying close to their respective humans. However, while Zoro had retired to the crow’s nest early (he had first watch) and Sanji was cleaning up the last of the dishes from his impromptu dessert… Both their spirit animals were with the crew. Or, rather, with each other and tangentially with the crew. Sanji’s fox had turned into a sunshine-colored duck, fat and fluffy--almost regal--as it sat atop one of the barrels beside the nakama pile. Snuggled into the soft-looking feathers was a small pipe dragon; a twist of pale green against vivid yellow. Nami smiled at the strange pairing. The two creatures seemed incredibly close, and much more affectionate than their counterparts. She tucked that new tidbit of information away, and covered her mouth as she let out a jaw-cracking yawn.

  
  
Turning, she opened the door to the ladies’ bunkroom, and offered a small finger-rub to the pack rat which hadn’t left her shoulder since they’d begun singing songs.

 

\- - -

 

Sanji was beginning to wonder if there wasn’t something to the rumors that crews tended to go mad once they came into contact with the white fog. Robin had been rather knowledgeable about the phenomenon, and had acted as the voice of reason ( _as she so often was_ ) throughout the day. But Sanji had been feeling out of sorts all day. His routine hadn’t been too terribly affected by the addition of his nakama’s spirit animals, but he had been feeling _off_ , just the same.

 

He rinsed the last bowl of the evening, and set about wiping down the counters. He needed a cigarette.

 

After he was done, Sanji tossed the rag into the bin, tapped his cigarette on the counter to settle the tobacco, placed the filter between his teeth, and brought his lighter to bear. There was the crisp sound of burning paper, and then he let out a long smoky sigh.

  
  
Sanji leaned forward with his palms on the countertop and rotated his neck. After a short while of breathing and stretching, he began rotating his ankles. He might need to work off some of his excess energy if the feeling of _wrongness_ didn’t subside.

 

\- - -

 

The next morning saw Robin up bright and early, coffee cup in one hand, and backpack for exploring over one shoulder. Sanji flitted about the kitchen creating Pirate Bentos (upon order of the captain), and Nami had “borrowed” one of Usopp’s spyglasses so that she could search for any sign of a grove of trees in the shape of a “W.”

 

Usopp, rudely kicked awake so that he could fetch said spyglass, watched the island with a wane eye.

 

Chopper had, had the last shift on watch, and was groggily sipping at a mug of hot cocoa that Sanji had brought for the reindeer when he had brought Robin her drink.

 

Chopper was quietly talking to Franky about what the fog might be, and how the island floated above the waves. Usopp wandered over to take part in this conversation just as Brook walked over so that he could loom behind Nami, “Can you see anything, Miss Nami?”

 

Nami, startled, spun on a heel and whacked her staff sharply against Brook’s head. There was the resounding and hollow noise of the staff connecting with bare bone, and then a merry, “Ho-ho-ho-ho! You nearly took my face off! Good thing I don’t have one! Yo-ho-ho-ho!” ...Followed by another hollow _thunk!_

 

Franky had begun to describe how _he_ would make an island fly, and Chopper’s tiredness was forgotten in the fervent excitement of Franky’s invention. With stars in his eyes he listened to the engineer describe waterfalls of cola and flying cities. Usopp’s excitement, an almost uncontrollable urge to describe his own flying castle, was palpable as he practically vibrated listening to Franky’s theorizing.

 

Robin tapped Usopp on the shoulder with a disembodied hand, and he turned towards her. She winked and covered her mouth with a slender finger before pointing to the railing where Zoro had fallen asleep sometime in the middle of the night. As she had suspected, Zoro had a golden ball of fur curled up around his neck and across his shoulders.

 

Usopp took a moment to digest what he was seeing, and then--realizing the significance of what he was witnessing--turned back to look at Robin in shock. His eyes wide as saucers, he motioned erratically, and mouthed, ‘ _What?_ '

 

She smiled mysteriously and nodded as if to say, _‘That’s all.’_

 

With an audible, “Huh,” Usopp spared another glance for the sleeping swordsman, a small smile creeping across his features.

 

“Sanji, MEEEEEAAAAAT!”

 

And with that, the entire crew was up.

 

“Wait your turn shitty rubber.”

 

After the fifth time that Luffy was kicked away from the galley, only to return at top speed, there was a roar and Luffy hit the ground under the weight of Zoro’s tiger. He held his distinctive straw hat to his head, and shouted upon seeing the large beast.

 

“Why does Zoro get to eat first?!”

 

From behind Luffy, and across the deck, came Zoro’s shout of, “What? I’m not eating, idiot.”

 

“But-!”

 

Usopp elbowed Robin and unsubtly nodded his head towards the kitchen door where the green tiger was sitting lazily on the captain. It yawned, unintentionally showing off razor sharp fangs, and backed off so that Luffy was free--although it didn’t move from the threshold of the kitchen.

 

There was a shriek from the galley and a victory whoop as Luffy’s monkey came swinging out of the kitchen--a platter of foodstuffs clutched between its feet, “Mr. Monkey! You’re the best!”

 

Which is the story of how Luffy ate all the meat for the breakfast sandwiches and everyone else ended up with eggs. It was also the story of why Luffy ended up tied haphazardly to the mast while the rest of the crew ate and prepared for disembarkation (each of the crew’s spirit animals--in turn--brought Luffy things to snack on while he was tied to the mast).

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please be gentle. Actually sharing things is new for me, and in the middle of writing this I went through a grueling 4 tier interview process (I got to the last interview) and then didn't get the job (hence it being really late). Also: I don't have a beta. /sheepish
> 
> Expect Chapter 2 by September 3rd.


	2. Finding What is Missing - Part A

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew embarks across the floating fortress of Marvelous Helen. They find that, like any good fortress, this one is splendid... And full of traps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part A of Chapter 2. (Because I plan on keeping my word, even if I need to cheat to do so.) I apologize in advance for some weird tense-shifts here. I didn't get to go through this with the fine-tooth comb that I had planned on. That being said, I still don't have a beta... so. ;)

Heading out, Luffy and Nami took the lead (both having the most to gain from exploring the island) with Brook (insisting that he would be partaking in the main course of _this_ adventure). Franky and Chopper stayed together to figure out the secret behind the _floating_ aspect of the island, and Sanji gallantly offered to accompany Robin (and Usopp) in the archaeologist's search for the history behind the island. Zoro, in a misguided attempt to keep him from getting lost, would be left with the _Sunny_.

 

The island was a verdant gem floating atop a thick layer of opaque white mist. The fog rolled across the ocean’s surface in lazy white waves that shone brightly in the sunlight. Around the island, the white walls of the mist did not cast any shadows, and the sunlight reflected off of them to highlight the vibrant colors of the island; emerald green trees, a rainbow of flowers, with lush bushes and the occasional bright bird.

 

The air was saturated with the scent of pine needles, and the sound of streams echoed through the valleys and ravines between tall evergreens. The trees towered, many of them reaching 200 ft (60 meters), or even 300 ft (91 meters). As soon as they made landfall, the were engulfed in the rich scents and sounds of the island. The smell of the island was a refreshing odor that welcomed their small adventuring parties.

 

They found small paths, and walked under the shade of the trees. All around them were the sounds of birds, streams, and insects. The island seemed to be a series of deep ravines, cool beside small streams and beneath the vaulted trees. The high canyon walls were baked hot in the sun. Soon, they began to encounter evidence of Marvelous Helen’s amazing fortress.

 

Spanning from ravine-edge to ravine-edge were long, high bridges, dotted with blue globes. When walking across the bridges, the crew found that the seemingly solid rock walkways bounced rhythmically with their footsteps. The vibrations stirred the globes. When Robin examined the blue orbs closely, she noticed that they were spheres of glass filled with a blue water that lit up--presumably from the presence of some sort of bioluminescent ocean life--when disturbed.

 

The crew quickly gleaned that their spirit animals were just as excited, curious, and/or scared as they were. It was hard to tell whether it was Luffy’s monkey, or Luffy that was the first to run to a “bouncing bridge” and begin to aggressively hop up and down on the rock. When he/they found that the bridge bounced violently, but not enough to catapult Luffy's rubbery person into the air, they were quick to run on to the next one: Brook and Nami followed quickly after (it would not do to lose their captain so early on in their adventure).

 

Brook’s companion--which had taken the form of an albatross for the trek--flew in circles across the island bringing notes from one group to another. Unfortunately, these notes were, by-and-large, nonsensical and ridiculous. Eventually, it was Robin who discovered that Zoro’s cryptic scrawl was--in fact--a note indicating that he had (somehow) gotten separated from the ship, and had found the ‘W’ shaped trees which marked the buried treasure. Once this was established, the poor old albatross, was used almost exclusively to send insults from Sanji to Zoro, and back again, and was kept quite busy.

 

Luckily, Robin’s companion had the ability to turn into a large crane, and it gracefully brought the news to Nami, Brook, and Luffy. Less luckily, Robin’s ability to decipher script was stumped by Zoro’s description of _how_ he had found the glade. Her best guess was that he had been using a _cloud_ to navigate, possibly the sun (as though the sun stayed in one location), and Zoro’s idea of where the _Sunny Go_ was… Relative to his current location. While Nami cursed the swordsman for his horrible sense of direction and incredible luck, Luffy assured her that they'd find him eventually (he seemed to find the whole situation hilarious, and was not terribly concerned with their errant first mate).

 

It was, unsurprisingly, Luffy’s monkey that discovered the hidden ruins leading to Marvelous Helen’s fort. It was--equally unsurprisingly--Luffy who discovered the still active traps. The twisting pathways and high walls were covered in intricate mosaic images and hand-carved sculptures. It was one of these elaborate art pieces which Luffy disturbed.

 

The trap sprung, literally, and Luffy--laughing like a madman--whooped and hollered as he crashed through the bracken--away from the hideout, and was effectively separated from his companions despite their best efforts.

 

Nami decided that Luffy was probably more of a liability than a boon in the trap-filled fortress, and drug a rattling Brook into the maze of tiles--bound and determined to find the legendary treasure. It was four painstakingly traversed paths later that she remembered that Brook could travel _sans body_ , and not risk bumbling into any traps.

 

Unfortunately, as strange as the Strawhats were, the Grand Line never failed to be stranger.

 

Brook, slumped against a long-dry fountain, sent his soul searching for the route that would lead Nami to her heaps of treasure. Nami sat on the edge of the fountain, and considered the validity of scraping the pretty rocks off the surface and trying to sell them for profit.

  
  
Brook, floating away from his body, was distracted by a familiar voice, and came across Robin, Usopp, and Sanji examining a large wall covered in carvings and levers. Robin was speaking, “I think that it’s a trap for spirit animals. I’m not sure why it didn’t activate when we approached.”

 

Usopp shivered and gently ran a finger over the head of the large dragonfly perched on his shoulder. After briefly considering how important the small creature had become to him--in such a short span of time, no less--he crossed his arms and looked up at the wall with a slight frown, “Is there a way to free them once the trap goes off?”

 

“It seems that there is a… key which can release anyone held in the wall.”  
  
  
Sanji took a long drag of his cigarette, “Any _one_?”

 

Robin turned and smiled, “Your spirit animal is your ‘true self’ or part of your inner being. If it is captured, you will cease to function.”

 

Sanji breathed out a long stream of smoke and looked around for the golden fox that had been following them all morning; it seemed to have run off. Sanji frowned and considered Robin's warning. _Missing spirit animal? Probably not something to be worried about_.

  
Usopp turned away from the wall to continue on, and froze at the ghostly apparition of Brook hovering mid air behind him. Brook wiggled his fingers and let out a haunting, " _Ooooaawwwooo_."  
  
  
The sharpshooter's eyes grew wide, and he shrieked, throwing his hands up in the air.  
  
  
Brook grinned (as best as a spirity-skeleton could), pleased with himself. _Never ceases to entertain._

  
Before he could relish the theatrical moment properly, Brook was rudely pulled towards the wall. _Didn’t Robin say something about it_ not _activating_?  
  
  
Robin turned just in time to see the bony ghost disappear into the wall with a flailing of ghostly afro and thin limbs, “Oh dear.”  
  
  
Usopp yelled, “Brook!” And rushed towards the wall, but an elegant arm appeared in a flutter of petals and held him firmly away.

 

“I think touching it, or damaging it, is ill-advised.”

 

After a moment, the elaborate mosaic changed and shifted, and Brook, now two-dimensional and stylized artistically, seemed to laugh and wave; a hieroglyph in motion. As the carving moved, a series of old letters and symbols appeared beside it. Robin laughed quietly, shaking her head, after reading the ancient script, “He assures us that he is in good _spirits_.”

 

Sanji bit through the filter of his cigarette in irritation at the pun, and Usopp slumped--although it was unclear if this was due to worry or exasperation. Robin continued to smile faintly.

 

“One of us will have to stay with him while the others search for the 'key.'”

 

At that moment, Brook’s albatross came flying (not by any power of its own) through the air and landed smack into the wall. Before the three that were gathered beneath the wall could react to this strange turn of events, the bird seemed to melt into the wall. This was followed immediately by a distant wailing.

 

Upon turning towards the yelling, it became apparent that Brook’s body--just like that of his albatross--had been summoned to the wall, and was flying haphazardly through the sky. Unlike the albatross, however, it had a passenger. Nami was gripping Brook’s bony legs as tightly as she could, and was yelling as the body rocketed through the air towards the wall.

 

Thinking quickly, Usopp shot a seed at his feet which sprouted into a huge flower, one whose soft spongy petals were sure to soften Nami’s abrupt descent. Sanji _sky walked_ up to meet the flying pair, and as they flew past him, he kicked Brook’s body out of Nami’s hands and into the wall.  
  
The wall shuddered and a curtain of dust fell to the ground when the skeleton smashed into it and slid down to its base to lay in a heap of quality fabric, bones, and afro. It was a bit unnerving to see Brook’s lifeless skeleton.

 

The little carving of Brook in the wall looked displeased and shook its tiny fists at Sanji who casually took a drag off his cigarette and descended to make sure that Nami had weathered her fall into the plant as gracefully as he knew she would.

 

Nami stood up, dusted herself off, and thanked Usopp. Adjusting her clothes and her appearance, she smiled at Sanji and turned to Robin, “What is going on?”

 

Robin explained. Usopp walked over to Brook’s slumped corpse and, after frowning at it for a moment, rearranged it so that it was leaning jauntily against the wall.

 

Sanji grinned, and his golden fox came bounding up to Usopp with a bouquet of flowers clenched between its teeth. Sanji wondered, idly, if it had been gathering them for Nami before his current idea had the creature delivering the bouquet to a grinning Usopp. Sanji strode over, plucked two flowers from the bunch, snapped off the longer part of their stems, and twirled over to the girls to present them. Meanwhile, Usopp got to artistically filling Brook’s afro with bright flora.

 

"Beautiful flowers to adorn the stunning women of the Strawhat Pirates?" With a flourish, Sanji placed a bright flower behind Nami's ear, swiveled, and placed a similar flower in Robin's hair. Nami adjusted the plant, and smiled, "Thank you, Sanji-san."  
  
  
Robin did not react beyond offering Sanji a taken-aback blink and a small thanks.

After receiving acknowledgment from both women, Sanji wandered back over to help Usopp in his important mission. Over half of Brook's hair was filled with small flowers; expertly, and deftly woven into the afro. Usopp smiled at Sanji, and offered half of the unplaced flowers. Sanji took them in one hand, and smiled at the fox sitting nearby. He ran a hand from the tip of the beast’s nose to the flick of its tail. He still felt _off_ , but this, _this was kinda nice_.

 

\- - -

 

Franky and Chopper, while exploring the outer edges of the island, had discovered a cave which opened out over the white mist. Franky, speedily and efficiently--and with the aid of his colossal ground sloth--built a bridge from their location _above_ ground, to a shelf _below_ the island. Franky’s bridge arched across the sea of white mist to a dark nook which, upon further investigation, appeared to be the entrance to a vast series of tunnels and caverns.

Excitedly, the two of them set off to find the heart of the island. Chopper’s examinations echoing down through the long twisting corridors.

 

\- - -

 

It was decided, that the Brave Warrior Usopp would stay and guard the inanimate wall and Brook’s skeleton. Robin was quick to assure the young man that it was his duty to ensure that the wall came to no harm before she could return with the key to free Brook’s soul.

 

While Sanji exclaimed about his good fortune in getting to traverse the trap-laden ruins with the two most beautiful of women, Nami glared daggers at Usopp for making such a declaration possible. The sharpshooter managed to become entirely engrossed with his attempts to communicate with Brook via charades.

Sanji’s golden fox shifted and changed--growing to an intimidating size and sprouting huge curled horns--morphing into a ram, ready to confront anything which would threaten the crew’s lovely ladies. It stomped and snorted before pacing forward to test the path.

  
Robin smiled at the beast; only Sanji and Zoro, over all the years that she had been able to see spirit animals, had souls that took three forms. And here her crew was, thinking this remarkable feat was entirely normal… Not that she planned on enlightening them.

 

From a distance, the group heard a lengthy yell, followed by a shout. There was a rumble of rock and machinery. In the silence that followed, the crew wordlessly acknowledged that the noise was most likely caused by their errant captain, and just as silently, they continued on with the path they had decided on for themselves.

Nami, not long deterred from her original goal of buried treasure, started forward. Robin adjusted her small backpack, and Sanji followed happily after.

Robin’s crane took one last curious look at the wall, and then swept into the air. Nami’s packrat wiggled its nose at the still form of Brook’s body, and hopped up to snuggle against the skeleton.  
  
  
Usopp smiled at the small creature, and wondered at how much care and love the crew felt for each other but failed to show. How many times had Nami declared a course of action and marched off, but her mind--no, a part of her very soul--had been left with her injured nakama? How many times had they failed to show their love for their nakama in a way that outsiders would recognise? _Or even_ , he mused, considering how close Sanji and Zoro’s spirit animals seemed to be, _failed to show their love in a way the_ crew _would recognize_.

 _Speaking of which…_ “We should probably get the rest, huh?”

Usopp grinned at the stylized Brook, and set about creating a sizeable bonfire. The Brook in the wall was telling an impressive story, in mime, that involved a small green marimo getting lost searching for a huge smoke signal. Usopp grinned, “Your story won’t be complete until Sanji goes and finds the lost marimo.”

 

Usopp could tell that Brook was laughing, and he smiled at his trapped nakama who seemed to have taken the entire experience in stride. _I guess living as long as he has, Brook isn’t phased by much_.

 

Looking up at the tall twisting clouds of smoke, Usopp grinned at his dragonfly; he had the best crew. They dealt with odd and unexplained occurrences, they fought against staggering odds, and they stayed in good cheer. And, now that he’d set the fire, he was sure they were on their way.

 

**\- - -**

 

Sanji lit a cigarette and breathed in the acrid air as he considered the path ahead of them. Surely, it would have more traps. Worse, since the ruins were, well, _ruins_ , there was a chance that the traps wouldn’t work quite right and could cause a great deal of structural damage to the area around where the trap had been sprung.  
  
  
If the noises that came sporadically from across the forest were any indication, Luffy was managing to fly head-first into as many traps as possible, and Sanji hoped that the idiot wouldn’t bring the whole structure down around their ears.  
  
  
It was impossible to know how much of the twisting paths and dilapidated walls were connected. Too much of the island had grown over and through the fortress. Vines, bushes, and trees grew up through the uncovered hallways and courtyards. Too many tall trees obscured the hillsides, making a view of the fortress itself nearly impossible, and the tall maze-like walls, didn't help.  
  
  
Running a hand through his hair, Sanji bit into the filter of his cigarette and sighed. He looked over at the bighorn sheep which was keeping pace with him, but staying on the other side of the ladies to ensure that they were safe. Why did he feel so weird?  
  
  
It was aggravating. Here he was, with both of his lovely ladies, _all to himself_ , and he felt off-center. It was almost like his balance was off. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the island was floating? ...Somewhat unlikely since he had spent most of his childhood at sea. Maybe he hadn't had enough water and was beginning to feel the effects of dehydration? It was possible, but also unlikely: after all, it was his _job_ to make sure that each of the crew was hydrated. Stubbornly, he forced the thoughts away so that he could focus on what was important: Nami and Robin.

 

Robin was commenting on the mosaic tiles which made up the pathway, and he had been so preoccupied with his attention to his own aberrant feelings that he hadn’t noticed! Mentally scolding himself, Sanji turned his attention to the captivating archaeologist, “Do you think that they have clues as to what the traps will be?”

 

“It seems that if they do, they might be based on a code we could not hope to decipher. A sort of personal language and story which only the late pirate captain and her crew would know.”

 

He hummed in acknowledgement of this, and directed his attention back to the path in front of them. _Maybe my senses are trying to tell me that something here is_ wrong _and that we should head back._

 

 _Or maybe_ , a much more cynical part of his brain chimed in, _you could actually pay attention to where you’re walking._ If he continued to be unable to focus while they traversed the ruins he would end up in as bad shape as Luffy. Or worse, since he wasn’t made out of rubber.

 

No sooner had the thought occurred to him than he saw--in horrifying slow motion--Nami step onto a tile with the image of a rabbit making rice cakes, and there was a small, almost indecipherable, _click_.

 

Her eyes widened, and she yelped as the ground caved in beneath her heels.  
  
  
Without hesitation, Sanji threw himself bodily at his nakama, knocking her backwards into Robin with enough force to send both women back. There was a loud bang, a bright light, and the ground opened up beneath him.

 

His head rang from the noise of the explosion, and his vision exploded into bright spots--blinding him from what was going on. Over the dull whine in his ears, he heard a low _chkk-whomp_ , like a giant arrow embedding itself deep in the earth, and everything went dark except for the blinking lights across his eyes from the explosion. He knew that his path to the surface had been cut off. Something had slid into place above him, and he was still falling.

 

Sanji tucked his hands close to his sides as he fell and sprawled his feet outward, jumping weakly off the air to avoid the harsh impact against what he was sure would be a spike-filled pit. He landed deftly against stone stakes. Sliding down a sharpened stake, his instincts screamed at him, and he had just enough time to throw himself out of the way as a slab of rock crashed into the pit where he had been standing. Dirt and debris rained down on his hair, but he had avoided the most dangerous rubble. _Sometimes, I hate being right._

 

“ _Tsk_.”

 

After a moment, his vision began to clear of the flashing lights, and the whine in his ears lessoned to the point where he could hear the deafening silence of being underground. He looked blindly around himself and reached out a hand to the rock wall.

 

Mentally, he went over a checklist of his extremities. It seemed that he was relatively uninjured from the fall, but that did not change the fact that he had fallen what was probably over 80 feet (24.5 meters), that it was darker than night, and he was standing in a spiked pit. _I bet Zoro ends up in shitty situations like this all the fucking time. Get lost: end up separated from the crew and a hundred feet underground, covered in dirt; in the dark. Yeah,_ he thought, _just like Zoro._

 

“Shit.”

 

\- - -

 

Zoro tromped through the forest, the large green tiger keeping pace as he wandered deeper into the woods. Usopp’s smoke signal had been to the right of the sun, and left of the weird grey-green trees on the left side of the mountain, so if he walked in a straight line from where they had anchored the ship he’d reach it in no time. Since he had walked… left from the ship, he needed only to walk right-ish to get to where Usopp was.

 

With his senses stretched to note any strange or out-of-place rustlings in the bushes or trees, he casually followed a game path to avoid the larger spiked weeds which seemed native to the island. He wondered if they were eatable. _Sanji would know_.

 

With a frown, Zoro dismissed the thought. _Whatever_ \--he was certain that if he had to, he could eat them; it would take more than a plant to hurt him, anyway _\--Sanji isn’t here_. The tiger snorted, and Zoro’s eyes narrowed. Was it possible for a tiger to snort incredulously?

 

He wondered, idly, if he’d have enough time to stop and eat the pirate bento he’d grabbed before jumping off the ship and heading inland. Probably not. Chances were that if Usopp felt it necessary to light a beacon that the poor man had encountered something worth fighting. Not that Usopp couldn’t fight it himself; it was just that he knew how much his nakama enjoyed fighting. At least, that’s what Zoro assumed.

 

The tiger huffed. Zoro squinted at it. Was it possible that this “spirit animal,” this “part of himself,” was _mocking_ him? _What the hell?_

 

The tiger looked over its shoulder at Zoro. The beast didn’t need words to convey its dry sense of humor, or its accusation that _even Zoro_ didn’t believe his own mental bullshit. _Well_.  
  
  
Zoro shrugged at the beast and continued walking. _Sometimes you need to look at the world_ differently _to really_ see _what’s going on_. _Just look at Luffy_. The tiger didn’t seem to have anything to add to that, and began walking alongside him again. Zoro grinned.  
  
  
The sun was fairly high in the sky, but it was pleasant under the shade of the trees. It had been just shy of uncomfortably warm aboard the _Sunny_. The weather on this floating island was weird. The ocean was positively freezing, but the ‘mystery’ fog didn’t seem to affect the temperature at all. The island itself seemed fairly temperate-to-warm.

 

Stomping through the foliage, Zoro couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right. He didn’t think that his unease came from the island itself, or even the new addition of spirit animals to the crew, but he could tell that _he_ was off. His focus wasn’t quite as sharp as usual, his sense of assuredness was off-kilter: it felt as though he was missing a shoe. Not that missing a shoe had ever bothered him before; he’d spent plenty of time barefoot. Perhaps a better metaphor would be… _It was like he was missing his bandana_. He didn’t _need_ it, but he didn’t feel _quite right_ without it, either.

 

He frowned and popped his neck in irritation. This was clearly some weakness that he would have to train out of his system, but he couldn’t begin to deal with the issue until he _knew what it was_. He didn’t think it had been so pronounced back on the ship...

 

Actually, after considering the feeling, he was sure he recognised it; it was the same feeling of isolation which he had first struggled with when he had been separated from the crew after Sabaody. He hadn’t noticed it at first because it was so different from that time: it wasn’t accompanied by the anxiety of not knowing what was happening with the others. It wasn’t accompanied by the pain from his wounds from Thriller Bark, or the excitement of where he had landed. No, this was just... general unease: he wasn’t even _that_ far from the others.

 

He reached forward and ran a hand through the scruff on the neck of the green tiger at his side. As unfamiliar as the action was, the presence of the beast was reassuring. He hadn’t felt this way on Fishman Island, and they’d been even further apart at that time. The only conclusion which he could draw was that it had something to do with _this_ island, or the “Mystery Fog.”

 

Irritably, he put the unease to the back of his mind. At some point in his musing he had deviated from his self-decided path. Zoro glared irritably at the trees; he couldn’t see the smoke signal through their branches. They all looked the same. Stupid island. Stupid feeling. Stupid treasure. Stupid… _stupid_ trees.

 

\- - -

 

Illuminated by the light of Sanji’s cigarette, the fox looked across the spike-pit at Sanji with an air of _I-told-you-so_ which was harshly familiar. Sanji stuck his tongue out at his spirit animal. Just because he had known better didn’t mean that he would have done anything differently. Besides, once the rock settled he’d be free to explore and come up with a plan. Really, out of all of the Strawhats, it was ideal that _he_ ended up underground. The ladies shouldn’t have to deal with this shit, and most of the men would bury themselves deeper trying to get out. Well, maybe not Franky. Franky might just build a bunker so that he could sip cola and wait for the rest of the crew. Alright, and maybe Brook didn’t need to breathe… So he wasn’t the _best_ option, but he wasn’t the _worst_ either.

 

Actually, until he found out if he had fresh air… Loathing to put out his smoke (and, subsequently, his only form of light), Sanji shut his eyes and concentrated on using observation _haki_ to determine the depth and breadth of the cave. He took a deep breath, and reached out of himself.  
  
  
The cave was much larger than he had originally estimated. While the trap had landed him in a deep pit, the top of the pit was actually connected to an underground passage that extended well beyond his senses. As he had suspected, the hole for the trap had been blocked after the initial trigger. A huge slab of rock and metal had slid across the artificially created hole and had embedded itself deep in the rock path--attempting to break it might damage the integrity of the base; especially obvious now that Sanji could tell how extensive the underground tunnels were. Best case scenario, he broke out. Worst case? He buried himself deeper, or opened up the hole so that Nami and Robin would fall in, or… _Or it starts a series of events which would shatter Brook’s wall._

 

Pushing aside the grim thoughts, he stood and dusted off his hands and pants. _Time to go exploring~!_ Sanji grinned at his fox companion and lept into the air. Stepping up through the air some thirty feet (9 meters) to the underground tunnel system, Sanji landed gracefully. Maybe he’d find something worthwhile down here.

 

The fox appeared beside him and weaved between his feet affectionately. Sanji huffed and smiled to himself as he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked forward into the dark.

 

\- - -

 

Zoro was convinced that the island was conspiring to keep him away from his nakama. He wasn't lost, _it’s the damn bridges_ : they kept moving. Like some horrific castle from a fantasy story, the bridges and walkways of the island seem to move and shift--always just out of sight. Zoro suspected that the trees were in on the evil machinations of the island, as well; they got up, moved around, and fell down to trip him up. But it was always the same fifty-or-so trees.

 

He could hear the tiger growling beside him in frustration; if he was late, Luffy would take all the fun enemies.

 

Zoro took a deep breath and squinted up at the tiny bits of blue that were visible between the tall trees. After a moment, he saw a small wisp of cloud travel across the sky. _Right to left_. _If I follow the clouds, they will lead me to Usopp’s smoke signal_.

 

Grinding his teeth together, Zoro swiveled slightly, and started off in the direction the cloud had traveled; it was downhill, but maybe that was just a trick, and it would start going uphill again (the smoke had been billowing pretty high: chances were that Usopp was pretty high up as well).

 

“Come on.”

 

The tiger took a moment to watch Zoro’s back, and then turned and followed behind. _If Luffy didn’t get to the enemy first; Sanji would_. _At this rate, by the time Zoro arrived, Sanji would be gloating and insufferable._

 

\- - -

 

The feeling, Sanji admits, was getting worse. The feeling of unease, the feeling that _not all is well_. He had a brief moment of panic, in the dark, and he looked around--searching for the tell-tale signs of pink which created this feeling _last time_ , but there is none.

 

He sighed, shifted his weight back, and breathed in sharply on his cigarette--the ember at the end glowed brightly for a moment and illuminated the passage he had found himself in. The floor had changed from compact earth and rock to polished blue stones--fixed together with no gaps greater than a centimeter. He breathed out, and like a glowing heart, the light pulsed low. When he breathed in, it pulsed bright again, and he watched the orange reflect sharply off the polished surface of the cut rocks.

 

Sanji hoped that the staggering loneliness would disappear, and tried to convince himself that it was the darkness that is causing it; but he’s too smart for that. It has something to do with the mist, the island… His nakama. With a breath that is not quite as steady as he’d like, he stepped forward into the cramped corridor.

 

Sanji knows that _they’re_ close. Even without the worrisome rumbling in the distance--testament to the continued destruction of traps and architecture--he knows that they’re here. _His_ nakama. The feeling was aberrant; this distance, this time was nothing like those two years. It wasn't even as far as he'd wandered from them since they had reunited!

 

His brooding thoughts were interrupted by a metallic clatter, and he stopped walking. Sanji slowly shifted his weight, lowered his center of gravity, prepared for who-knows-what. He lit a new cigarette off the end of his old one. Standing with the new stick cupped in one hand he dropped his former light source and crushed it beneath the sole of his shoe. He placed his new light to his lips and breathed in. _This is it._

 

Leaping out of the stones beneath his feet, was a giant reptile. Jumping up, out of the jaws of the beast, Sanji hissed to himself in consternation: _What shitty creature can swim through rock? ...It looks like an alligator._

 

It was bigger than he expected. Faster, too, and the hall wasn’t very wide. Not big enough for the both of them, anyway. The giant jaws of the… "ground ‘gator" ( _better than 'mystery alligator,'_ he thinks to himself) snapped shut on air, but raked across his shin, and he hissed through clenched teeth at the pain. _Another pair of quality slacks--_ ruined _!_  
  
  
Sanji frowned at the rows of sharp teeth and crouched across from the predator, moving his stance slightly so that his shredded pant-leg won’t stick to the bleeding teeth marks. _Since when have animals started being a threat, again? Goddamn crazy fucking Grand Line shitty bastard animals. Giant pissy snow rabbits, huge fuck-off alligators, evil otters, kung-fu dugongs, giant three-headed chimeras; all sorts of abnormal, often_ inedible _, creatures. And now--_ now _\--there’s some sort of giant ground-swimming alligator. What--the actual--fuck?_

 

After this rush of thoughts comes a torrent of barely-formed incoherent cursing, because that’s when a giant-toothed jaw breaks the surface of the path behind him, and snaps shut on his leg. He has just enough time to add an angry mental note that-- _fucking_ EVIDENTLY--ground ‘gators attack in _packs_ , and then the ‘gator rolls.

 

There was an abruptly painful yank which would have snapped a lesser man’s leg straight off, and Sanji lets himself get whipped around. The force is incredible. The back of his head slammed against the floor and for the second time in as many hours his vision exploded with white stars. He completes three rotations before the creature stops. He can feel his bones grinding against the teeth of the beast as he uses the momentum from the fearsome attack to power his own movement. He covers his trapped leg in armament _haki_ to stabilize the move, and lets flames engulf him: the corridor is blindingly illuminated. Through the concussion-blur of his vision, and the sudden light of his flames, he noted that both creatures were pale white.

 

He could see the first beast out of the corner of his eye, and timed his movement so that his head and shoulders would fly through the open jaws. He’s out just moments before the powerful jaws snap shut, and he grins ferally at the thing: the monsters had no idea what they were getting into when they picked _this_ fight.

 

The one that had its mouth around his leg let go, and his other leg--a white-hot brand of righteous indignation and love for andouille sausage--slammed full-force into the closed jaw of the other. He almost feels bad for the creature when he feels its teeth break under the force of his strike.

 

He dropped his weight on his heel, and slammed the rest of his momentum into the top of the ‘gator’s snout. With a flourish, he spun and raised the _haki_ -encased leg.

 

The second beast seems enraged, and it darts forward. This time, Sanji is prepared for the speed, and nimbly leaps off the head of his first victim, and skids across the smooth tiles away from his assailant. Warily, he keeps an eye on the stone at his feet--hopefully they didn’t have more comrades waiting in the rock. His voice comes out cockier than he expected, "Creole Jambalaya with Andouille Sausage. I’ll add some shrimp. ‘Maybe make a side of cajun-fried okra.”

 

Grinning at his own bravado, Sanji raised the flaming _haki-_ sheathed leg. As he waited for the reptiles’ next move, his leg casually covered the floor in a slowly growing pool of blood.

 

**\- - -**

 

Zoro was startled when the tiger stopped abruptly, leaving Zoro to perform an awkward hopping dance to avoid walking straight into the beast. It lifted its large head and tilted it as if listening to a far-off call. After a moment of silent stillness, the huge creature turned and bounded off through the bracken. Zoro watched it disappear with an irritated eyebrow twitch. _Well_ , it _certainly knows where_ it’s _going_.

  
Zoro briefly considered following the creature, but he didn’t want to get lost following some sort of _magical spirit beast_ when he had a perfectly serviceable direction to go. Resting an uneasy hand on the hilt of Shushui, he continued to walk through the forest, listening to the hum of insects, immersed in the rich smell of the evergreens.


	3. Finding What is Missing - Part B

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoro and Sanji have managed to get separated, but that's okay: they always find each other in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On time! /whew  
> Please enjoy! :)
> 
> \- - - 
> 
> \- - -

The world was a nauseating blur of light and shadow--punctuated by terrible breaths which rattled his skull and caused his plane of vision to wobble unsteadily. Not daring to keep on his feet any longer, Sanji let his back hit the wall, and bent his legs to lower himself to the floor.

   
Sanji sat hard on the polished blue stones of the narrow hallway, and pulled air into his lungs. Each breath was harsh, and his body was wracked by coughs. He doubled over while he attempted to suck in air. His eyes watered, and he wondered if he was destined to lose his breakfast from the violent hacking. He _loathed_ vomiting.

   
Gradually, Sanji began to breathe evenly, and he raised his head. He felt his mouth water, and he stopped another coughing fit through sheer force of will. Cringing from the pain, he squinted into the dark, drew his legs even closer to his chest, and pushed his back against the wall. _Shit_.

   
He might not be able to stand. ...Even with the help of the wall.

   
He looked down the hall. Both alligators were where he had left them: stacked neatly one atop the other. The hallways were eerily quiet aside from the faint echoes of his labored breathing.

   
Sanji grimaced in pain and frowned down at the shin which was still bleeding. The teeth of the first ground ‘gator had dug four small trenches--about as wide as his thumb, and as deep as the flat of his thumbnail--up and down the length of his shin. The puncture wounds from the second attack were even deeper. The kind of deep where he could see white where they’d scraped against bone, and the blood wasn’t so much _oozing_ as it was _rhythmically pulsing_ its way out of his body. His frown deepened. The edges of each wound were turning grey--a horrible festering which had started shortly after the fight had ended; if he hadn’t dispatched the creatures as quickly as he had, he’d be a dead man. _The cuts are deeper than I originally thought. Chopper’ll have my hide. Goddamn shitty_ inedible _‘ground gators_.

  
He’d checked the reptiles, when he stacked them, to see if they were edible. He was fairly certain--from his brief examination--that they were poisonous. _Useless._

   
Carefully, Sanji ripped both of his pant legs just above the knee. After discarding the bloodied tatters of one, he methodically wrapped the clean one around the still-bleeding wounds on his shin. He hissed through the pain, and vaguely hoped that the horrible creatures weren’t vectors of some unknown and untreatable disease, in addition to being poisonous.

   
At this point, he couldn’t tell if his nausea was caused from repeated blows to the head, loss of blood, or nasty ground ‘gator poison. He took shallow breaths and hoped that the world would stop tilting long enough for him to stand up. Sleeping, he knew, was not an option; but it was an attractive thought.

   
Bracing his ankles against the wall and the floor, he pushed, levering himself into a standing position. With a harsh intake of breath, he stood and panted as the world spun lazily--blurring his vision yet again. With a deep gulp of air, he raised his head, pushed his fingers against the polished wall, and took a step forward. _Yes. Definitely a ‘Zoro Adventure.’_ _Filled with idiocy, blood, and man-eating wildlife. Just a slight detour. Nothing_ I _can’t handle._

   
After several tries, Sanji managed to light a new cigarette. He knew he shouldn’t have one--breathing in the harsh smoke would make him want to cough, and send sparks across his vision--but he wanted a light, and the drug was calming. Carefully, he perched the stick between his lips, and sucked smoke into his mouth, brightening the hall. After a second, he let the smoke out and took a deep, unfiltered, breath. It was going to be a long walk.

  
Carefully, leaning a good deal of his weight on the wall, Sanji moved forward. Slowly and precisely, he moved one foot and then the other, gingerly avoiding putting too much weight on the wrapped leg. Whenever he was in danger of stumbling, he’d rest more weight on the leg, and he could practically see the blood bubbling through his impromptu bandage.

   
After what seemed like a small eternity of pain and minute movements, but was in actuality only ten or so paces, he took off his jacket and ripped the fine material into strips--tieing each stirp around his damaged leg. _Another good article of clothing lost to the dangers of piracy_.

   
Having secured his leg, he winced and continued on his limping journey.

   
Taking a deep breath, Sanji smiled when he reached the end of the blue-stone hallway. He turned towards his animal companion and blinked when--even when lighting the passage as brightly as he could--he couldn’t find the fox. _Oi!_

   
“Did that shitty fox leave when the ‘gators appeared?”

   
Talking to himself seemed like a completely reasonable course of action. In fact, he’d argue that--considering the concussion he no doubt had acquired--it was a sensical and useful course of action. Thinking things through was difficult, and being able to parse his situation was more important than a veneer of competency. So where had his I'm-a-part-of-you spirit animal gone off to? Had he seen it after the 'gators? No, no he had not.

   
“It did. Shitty spirit animal just took off at the first sign of trouble.” _What--the fuck--does that say about me?_

   
Sanji continued through the quiet dark, accompanied only by his weak light and sardonic humor. Eventually, he found himself at a fork in the road, where the passage split and turned into two different hallways. Sanji wavered slightly. In his condition, there was really no correct way of choosing a direction of travel. _What would Zoro do?_

   
“Oh right. I’m on a ‘Zoro Adventure.’ I bet he’d…” _Almost bleed out, and need rescuing? That didn’t sound very safe_.

   
“Follow his instinct.” For a moment longer the chef conducted his useless staring match with the twin passages.

  
“Which says,” Sanji squinted and leaned more of his weight on the wall, “...that ‘right’ means ‘up,’ and ‘left’ means ‘down,’ so I’d go ‘up’ to reach the surface, and ‘down’ to reach the ocean. The surface is closer, but the ocean is closer to the _Sunny_ , so… Left it is.”

   
And with that unsteady declaration, Sanji laboriously moved one foot in front of another, and continued down the hall.

 

\- - -

 

After an indeterminate amount of time, which seemed like a small, personal, hell, Sanji looked back and could no longer see the bend in the path he had come from. The building material that made up the hallway had changed from the smooth blue stones to smooth grey stones, and the air smelled faintly of the ocean. He could almost laugh, possibly cry. _I can’t believe that my Zoro-logic worked._

   
His fingers and toes were numb with cold, and he was fairly certain that, that wasn’t a good sign. The air wasn’t very warm in the tunnel, but it wasn’t freezing. _It must be lack of circulation. Bloodloss, my old friend_.

   
With a chagrined, self-deprecating smile, Sanji leaned his back against the wall and let himself slide to the floor. After a moment of consideration, Sanji pulled his arms into his shirt and stuck his fingers under his armpits. _Can you damage your fingers from bloodloss?_ _I can’t remember. I should know. I’ve dealt with blood loss more than anyone else in the crew… Even Zoro. Idiot._

   
Sanji blinked and it took an effort of will to open his eyes once they had closed. _Shitty fucking concussion._

   
Attempting to breathe steadily and keep his eyes open was taxing his system. He panted and prepared to lever himself back to his feet. Seeing a small glimmer of light in the distance, he squinted and held his position.

   
His eyes widened as a small, tube-shaped dragon came undulating across the polished stones of the hall. It was a pale sage-green color, with small neck frills, and a long snout. It moved like a snake across water. When it reached him, it headed-butted his good leg. It was warm, and it glowed with a soft inner light which was reassuring in its steadiness.

   
Almost immediately, Sanji was filled with a sense of strength; a quiet, powerful force which cared for his wellbeing. The creature headbutted him again, and he couldn’t keep the smile off his face as it rubbed a cheek against his leg. The tiny dragon wrapped itself around his calf and then cautiously coiled up to his knee so that he could make eye contact with the small beast.

   
His pain became background noise as he sat, back to the wall, legs pulled up to his chest, looking down at the small pipe dragon which reared up from his knee to look him in the eye. It had sharp, deep gold, almost black, eyes. They were incredibly expressive, and he could read concern easily in their liquid depths. Sanji’s mind was muddled, but there was a sharpness, an unabashed concern from the small creature, which demanded that his weary mental faculties snap to attention.

   
Heat radiated from the creature in waves: a warm, steady, heartbeat. The strength the creature projected was so familiar… It was difficult to place.

   
Like a light turning on, he realized: It was the constant presence which had been missing. It was like an odor which had been around so long that he had ceased to smell it, but upon its absence, he felt out-of-sorts. Sanji, slightly loopy from the head injury and blood loss, pulled an arm out of his shirt, and reached a hand out to the tiny beast. The creature hesitated, and then rubbed a softly scaled cheek against his hand.

   
As the kudaryōjin began to feel welcomed, it twined itself up around his arm, projecting a soft, soothing noise that sounded like light chimes in the wind. _Earrings._ It was a quiet strength that complimented his own fiery temperament perfectly… He found himself smiling happily at the small creature. _This was what had been missing_.

   
The realization must have shown on his face because there was an immediate reaction from the small spirit beast:

  
He was flooded, briefly, with happy tranquility, an easy and carefree sort of joy which left him giddy. Sanji held out his arm and let the small beast circle up his bicep and then over his collar to his throat. The dragon circled several times and then settled with its head between his clavicle bones.

   
Energy seeped from the small dragon into him, and he could smell the salt of the sea, the earth, and metal. His chest was full of a warm contentment that spread outward from his center, and brought life back to his extremities. It was as though his entire body was filled with light. Had he been standing, he would have stumbled with the abrupt intensity of the feeling. As it was, he gasped and threw his hand out to the wall to stop from sliding down. With the clarity came a return of the pain, but it was a welcome change from the fog of blood loss which had dulled his senses.

   
Dazed and grinning like an idiot, he began to laugh. The kudaryōjin uncurled from his neck to look into his eyes with an urgent and wary intensity.

   
He reached forward and ran a finger along the underside of the beast’s head. In response, the small dragon’s eyes closed, and tiny rumbling vibrated the small body: a pleasant purr of happiness.

   
“I’m going to be fine. You worry too much.”

  
Revitalized, Sanji pushed himself to his feet. Smiling at the slight weight around his neck, he resumed his trek through the dark. This time, he was accompanied by a small, pale green light--which barely illuminated his section of path--but was unwavering in its illumination. He leaned heavily on the wall, but made steady progress through the twisting corridors under Marvelous Helen’s fortress. The kudaryōjin burned away the fog within his conscious like the sun.

 

\- - -

 

Zoro contemplated the waterfall with the eye of someone who was accustomed to ending up _not quite_ where they had intended to be. He had found the hillside where he had assumed Usopp would be. Usopp was nowhere to be seen, and the smoke curled up from the far side of the ridge he was standing under.

   
He had walked through tangles of razor-sharp bushes, climbed a sheer cliff, fought off insects, avoided a huge rolling ball; and here he was. Above him loomed a tall waterfall which spilled down the mountainside in a nearly-vertical path across rocks worn smooth from years of pounding water. Below him was a dizzying hole which had been punched through the center of the island, leaving the waterfall to spill--uninterrupted--into the white mists below.

   
It took only moments of standing beside the waterfall to end up coated from head to toe in water, the spray from the cascading water drenching everything in the area.

   
Irritated, Zoro ran a hand over his face to wipe the water away from his eye. He’d have to climb to the top.

   
Zoro regarded the waterfall and the giant hole in the ground. They were in his way. Well, only if he thought of them as obstacles. Zoro grunted and approached the edge of the waterfall. It would be like cold water waterfall training. But instead of meditating, he’d be climbing. _Easy_.

  
With a nod to himself he double-checked his swords, and removed his long coat. After hanging his robe on a nearby branch, he reached out and touched the cascade of water. It was freezing. The force of the water was, perhaps, greater than he had been expecting as well. _Good_.

   
Without any hesitation, Zoro grabbed ahold of the slick rock face beneath the waterfall and began to climb.

   
Freezing cold water pounded down against his broad shoulders, and threatened to numb his fingers as they searched for the next handhold. Zoro made the climb look easy.

   
Halfway up the mountain, Zoro looked up to see a golden fox sitting on a rock outcropping just above his position. The golden fox lazed on the rock, its tail weaving back and forth as it watched the swordsman climb. When Zoro came eye-level with the beast it stood, sauntered casually over to him, and sniffed at one of his hands. Zoro watched impassively. 

   
The fox looked at Zoro.

   
Zoro looked at the fox.

   
The fox watched Zoro.

   
Zoro watched the fox.

   
The fox leaned forward.

   
Zoro blinked.

   
The warm leather feeling of the fox’s tongue drug across Zoro’s fingers, and then the needle-sharp fangs dug into his hand. Outraged, Zoro shouted (it was in no way a yelp; it had been perfectly manly) and withdrew his hand. The fox darted forward, and Zoro lost his grip on the slick rock with his other hand, “Shit!”

  
Zoro was tossed down the waterfall, immersed in roaring torrents of icy water. He reached out, flailing, and managed to hug a large stone outcropping several dozen feet below where he had begun. Zoro glared up at the fox, “What the _hell_ , swirly-brow?”

   
The fox, for its part, padded back to the center of its rocky perch and sat down, its fluffy tail wrapping around it like a blanket.

   
Grumbling to himself, Zoro began climbing again.

   
When he reached the level of the fox, it barely spared him a glance, and he resolutely ignored it in turn. One hand over the other, he pulled himself up the cliff. The water pressed down against him, the rockwall slick with moss and water. Zoro ignored his physical discomfort and climbed on.

   
Just after he had reached the height where he was no longer obscured by trees, and could freely feel the sun through the water cascading down his back, he heard a high pitched bark and looked up in time to see the fox falling through the sky--all teeth and claws.

   
Reflexively, one of his hands dug into the rock to keep him in place, and his free hand went to his swords. Almost immediately his action was interrupted by his brain playing back Robin’s warning, ‘ _I recommend refraining from touching them. It would be a shame if we were to accidently damage someone’s soul._ ’

  
Where even  _was_ the shitty cook? Had his stupid golden fox run off just like the tiger had? If so, why was it harassing him?  _Fat lot of good these spirit critters were turning out to be._

  
Zoro grit his teeth, and turned to face the rabid animal. To his surprise, the fox had disappeared. _Where did it go?_

   
Zoro, at a loss as to where the creature had disappeared to, grunted in irritation and resumed his upward climb. His hand gripped the soft moss of the next ledge, and he pulled himself upward--releasing his death grip on the rock.

 

The moss under his hand shivered, whined, and then shook his hand loose. He had a moment to realize what had happened and curse the fox, and then he was falling, “I’m going to cut you up, you bastard!”

 

Scrambling, his hands searching for purchase against the wet rock, he eventually managed to snag a thick root which punched through the wall and into the torrent of water that made up the waterfall. Swinging back and forth out of the water, Zoro glared up at the small golden spec that was the fox several hundred feet above him. Soul’s health be damned, he’d really cut that idiot curley-Q’s shitty spirit animal into golden slivers.

   
Risking a glance downward, he redoubled his grip on the root; below him was the boiling white mist under the island. He was dangling just shy of the bottom of the island. Concentrating, he could hear the thunderous noise of the waterfall crashing into the ocean far below. _I’m going to kill him._

   
Moving one hand over the other, Zoro began his climb--again--this time from below the island.

 

\- - -

 

When he saw the golden fur of the fox above him, he aggressively ignored the creature. Even if the bitchy spirit animal bit him, he’d keep climbing; he was almost to the top of the waterfall. The skin on his back had turned red from the pounding water, and his hands were claws that he had to struggle to open.

  
Against his will, he recalled a conversation he had, had with the cook on the subject:

   
_“Bananas? Those don’t help with that scurvy thing, do they?”_

   
_“You know what scurvy is…? No. Wait,_ of course _you know what scurvy is. You’ve probably experienced it. For the record, bananas do help with scurvy. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about your hands. The ability to open and close your hands. You want potassium.”_

   
_He had eyed the cook. He was clearly capable of opening and closing his hands, but it seemed that the twirly idiot was serious._

   
_“For my hands?”_

   
_“No! Yes. Just--look--you_ eat _the bananas (don’t rub them on your hands, you ape), and you get the vitamin potassium, and it helps with your meaty fists. So you can open and close them.”_

   
_Clearly, the cook was daft, and needed it explained, “Idiot. They open and close just fine.”  
_

_  
Zoro demonstrated. The cook bit into his cigarette and glared at the swordsman._

   
_“They wouldn’t. Not if you had to do some serious gripping.”_

_  
“Iee, Cook, have you been doing some serious gripping?”_

   
_“Bastard! Shut up. Screw off. Don’t listen to your cook; see if I care when you fall to your grisly demise.”_

   
Sanji hadn’t forced him to eat the bananas, but it had been nothing but adzuki beans for a week.

   
Zoro glared at his unresponsive hands, and winced as the muscles in his arms and back burned. He could hold this position for a while, but not forever. Glancing around, he verified that the fox was well beneath him.

   
_Fucking potassium. If they won’t open: they will close._ And with that thought, Zoro flexed his fingers in the stone, and the wall crumbled as he crushed the rock in his bare hands. _That’ll have to do._

   
In the end, Zoro would blame the wall for his troubles. Well, the wall and the shit-cook’s shitty spirit animal. Damn thing could move fast when it wanted to, evidenced by how it appeared _above_ him just feet away from the crest of the waterfall. He bared his teeth at the haughty golden fox and narrowed his eyes as it stared at him. Fucker was just as arrogant, obnoxious, straight-forward, and… _Why was it trying to kill him?_

 _  
_ No--the stunning creature wasn’t trying to kill him; it wanted something else. Zoro snorted at his errant thoughts: there wasn’t much point in arguing with the thought, Sanji _was_ stunning. Zoro grinned, _that was right_ : the moron acted _absurdly idiotic_  and _stunned_ all onlookers--especially the ladies that he would have liked to impress... It wasn’t a bad insult, he’d have to remember it for a later date. Really polish it up.

   
Zoro was just smarter than most, and paid closer attention to the important parts. Like the claws and fangs of the fox. Or… Very long legs of the man. Not that those _weren’t_ stunning--

   
Taking advantage of his momentary waver in concentration, the fox pounced. Zoro tensed in preparation for teeth and claws. The fox landed lightly on his head, and then proceeded to climb over every inch of him that wasn’t getting hammered with water or pushed up against the wall, “No. Wait--”

   
The creature’s tail flicked back and forth in front of Zoro’s face, and his grip on the wall shuddered when he sneezed. His eyes widened, and he pulled himself against the wall--effectively crushing the golden fuzzball between his chest and the rocks, “Stop wriggling, you bastard!”

   
There was frantic scrabbling, and then the fox abruptly stopped. Zoro eyed the beast sidelong, and then reached for a new handhold.

   
As he began to ascend, the fox wriggled free and jumped away. _Good riddance._

   
Reaching upward, his eyes caught those of the fox. It yipped quietly, and he frowned in response; it wasn’t like he could understand the thing. The creature--obviously impatient with the swordsman--dodged down the waterfall, its teeth sinking into the hilt of Shusui, and leaping with the sword in its mouth, “Hey!”

   
The fox continued to leap down the waterfall from outcropping to outcropping. _Sanji knew better than to steal one of his swords!_

   
His teeth clenched in anger, Zoro growled, “Going. To. Cut. You. Up.” And pushed off from the rock to follow the beast.

   
Sliding, scrambling, and falling down the rockface, Zoro managed to chase the light-footed creature across the waterfall. When he caught up to the fox, it was on a thin ledge. He gripped the edge of the rock with his hands, and pulled up his upper body up so that he could look the fox in the eye. The arrogant bastard looked him straight in the eye--and dropped the sword.

   
“Oi!”

   
Leaping after the falling blade, Zoro stretched and reached-- _Got it!_

  
Seconds after he had secured the sword, he hit solid rock--all the air leaving his lungs in a deep huff. Zoro lay on the low rock ledge and amended his earlier thoughts. The cook’s legs were _literally_ stunning, as well. Just like now, Zoro was rendered breathless and immobile from the strike. _Had the terms used to describe getting your ass handed to you always had so much overlap with the words used to describe reacting to beautiful people?_

   
The fox landed beside him on the ledge, and primly sat next to him. After a moment, it leaned forward and gently licked at his cheek. He wanted to get mad, but it was difficult when the animal seemed so apologetic; so worried. He growled softly, but the fox didn't seem to care.

   
He reached over and ran one of his hands over the fox’s head. The beast closed its eyes happily. After a brief while, the moment ended, and the beast got up- _-enough affection for one day, huh?_

   
The spirit animal stood and walked over to a pile of fabric. Taking the clothing into its mouth, the fox flicked its tail and started off  into a cave Zoro had somehow managed to miss while laying on his back, stunned from the fall.

   
_Wait a--“_ You planned this! That’s my coat you bastard.” He took it all back:  _easy to get mad_.

  
Zoro stood, shook himself, and chased after the spirit animal, “I mean it, I’m going to cut you into pieces you damn fox.”

   
Glaring up the sloping passage, Zoro followed the creature into the dark.  
  


\- - -  
  
  
After a while of silence, Zoro crossed his arms, “You’re going to get us lost.”

   
The fox stopped for a moment and regarded Zoro in the dark.

  
Zoro grumbled, “Did I say I _wasn’t_ following you, you bastard?”

  
With a flick of its tail, and a sniff, the fox continued on--a soft golden glow in the dark tunnels of Marvelous Helen’s Floating Isle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- - - 
> 
> \- - -
> 
> Thanks for continuing to read! I think this is probably my least polished chapter yet! That's okay though, I'm going to make up for it with the next one. It should be up... Approximately October 18th. ^_^;;
> 
> *A note on word play. If you're not a native English speaker you might struggle with the nuances of the word "stunning." I'll be playing with it a bit--in this case it means "captivating [by presence/beauty]" and "something which stuns (incapacitates)."


	4. Moving Spirits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sanji finds that magical spirit animals, blood loss, concussions, and oceans don't mix. And Zoro remembers just whose spirit animal he's dealing with.

Sanji squinted at a break in the passageway. It was the fifth break he had run into. Just like the last few, this one wasn’t a clear division of paths, but a variety of holes or caves in the dark which may--or may not have been--be man-made; may--or may not--lead to yet another long twisting tunnel.

 

The smoothly polished stones had given way to bare ground. Periodically Sanji needed to duck to avoid hanging tree roots which had punched through the ceiling. It was a mess, and Sanji couldn’t help but wonder if the maze had been considered a feature of the terrible island hideout.

 

He watched the meeting of paths with the trepidation of a pirate who had traveled the Grand Line for years. Sighing, he shut his eyes. He was getting nowhere just staring at it.

 

He could feel the soft scales of the kudaryōjin, a reassuring weight across his clavicles, and he couldn’t help but smile at the steady warmth the creature radiated. Realizing the idiotic picture he probably presented: a grown man standing in the dark, grinning to himself with a glowing dragon necklace--he slumped and hung his head. He blamed Zoro for making him look like an idiot. Because it was Zoro’s fault: His sluggish mind had, eventually, managed to come to the unpleasant conclusion: the pipe dragon was Zoro. Or, well, Zoro’s spirit animal.

 

He needed a cigarette. Ignoring the side-eye he got from the dragon, he gingerly set a thin stick between his lips.  
  
“You know, if you change into a tiger, I could lean on you instead of the wall.”

 

In the privacy of his own mind, Sanji could admit that there was something Very Important happening. Something that had always been an underlying truth was being drug into the forefront of his existence. There didn’t seem to be anything he could do to stop it. Luckily, the substantial wounds he had managed to earn were cushioning him from addressing the mind-fuck that was his comfort--nay-- _need_ for the Marimo’s spirit animal.   
  
It had, had to have been one of the crew’s animals. It was too familiar to be anything else.  But unlike most of the spirit animals in his crew, he couldn’t identify this one by smell. It was odd because Sanji, as a cook, had an incredible sense of smell. Eventually he concluded that it was an odor which he had been around him so long that he could no longer detect its presence.

 

It wasn’t Robin’s spirit animal--her creature smelled like fresh flowers and gave off a calm, fiercely protective aura which was hard to mistake. Nami’s spirit animal had an intensity, a sort of unbeatable aura of survival and world know-how that tasted like Berī, lightning, and citrus.  
  
Luffy’s spirit animal, for lack of a better term, smelled like sunlight. Sanji knew, theoretically, that sunlight didn’t have a smell, but he was fairly certain that he wasn’t incorrect in his judgement of the future-pirate-king’s odor.

 

Franky’s sloth had smelled like a mixture between gasoline, oil, and cola that somehow managed to not be abhorrent. Equally surprising was Chopper’s wet animal smell that just managed to smell healthy and clean. Chopper smelled like Sanji imagined a happy childhood would smell.

 

The dragonfly (because he never had dared to get close to the roc) had smelled incredibly floral, and he couldn’t help but wondering if its scent matched that of the mysterious Kaya he had occasionally heard tell of.

 

The akida had smelled of… “home.” Or, well, the concept of home. The old dog gave off a heat like a furnace (perhaps making up for his human’s inability to do so), and smelled of wood and freshly baked bread. Sanji liked the smell.

 

He decided that it would be easier to let the kudaryōjin lead. _Zoro_ might not have any sense of direction, but at the very least the small creature would have the ability to sense where Zoro was. Actually, that would be an incredibly useful skill. Sanji was pretty good at finding Zoro, at employing “Zoro Logic.” _Just go the exact opposite way that a rational person would_ . But he didn’t have a _supernatural_ homing ability.

 

He also, truth be told, could not be bothered to think at the moment. It was too difficult, and he needed to save his strength and energy for whatever else the island might throw at him.

 

He gestured vaguely towards the junction of potential paths, “You pick.”

 

The kudaryōjin uncurled from around his neck, and its small scaled head uncoiled and pointed towards a dark cave. Sanji followed the direction-- _couldn’t hurt, too much, to meet up with Zoro--_ without the slightest hesitation.

 

_If anyone asks why I decided this was a good idea, I’ll tell them it was the blood loss, or possibly the concussion._

 

Sanji smiled to himself and ducked under a low-hanging root. The passage was murkier than before, and the stone was regularly interrupted by dirt and debris. But as he continued, he couldn’t deny that his path had begun to smell like the ocean. Maybe the tiny dragon was on to something.

 

After a while, Sanji could make out a dim light. _The end of the tunnel._

 

Energized by the prospect of sunlight and his nakama, he increased his pace. The pipe-dragon snaked down from his throat to his lower arm--squeezing it in unease. Sanji snorted at the show of concern, “Have you always been such a worrywart?”

 

 _Of course he has_ . _He just_ also _believes in his nakama._ Sanji frowned, and pushed the thoughts aside. _Since when was he an expert on what Zoro believed?_

 

The small dragon trilled at him, and he found it difficult to balance his feelings towards the small creature with his feelings towards its human. _Of course I_ like _Zoro, he_ is _one of my nakama... I just, also can’t stand him. It’s a balance._

 

But his feelings towards the spirit animal were… Strong. He wanted to cuddle the dragon to him, bath in the warm security it projected, and keep it safe. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the kudaryōjin perk up and watch the end of the tunnel which was steadily getting brighter. Pretty soon he could catch glimpses of white clouds through the debris of the tunnel. Already smiling in anticipation, Sanji strode towards the tunnel entrance. And then abruptly stopped.

 

Just inside of the tunnel, he looked out at the world beyond, and squinted in the reflected brightness of the sun against the clouds--and swore, “Shit.”

 

With a raised eyebrow, Sanji addressed the small dragon that was curled snugly around his lower arm, the head twisted around to look him in the eye as he spoke, “I _can_ believe you got me lost. I _can’t_ believe that you _can’t find the Marimo_ .”   
  
The kudaryōjin tilted its head to the side, a quirk that Sanji had seen Zoro exhibit when confused, and made a small, “ _eep_ ” noise. All he could read from the small creature was a mix of concern and confusion. Wasn’t it doing a good job?

 

Sanji looked out of the hole in the side of the island and sighed at the sheer cliff above him and the long drop below.

 

He really wanted to be annoyed. Sanji desperately wanted to chew angrily on the base of his cigarette, flare up in flames, and spit vitriol at the small beast, but he couldn’t find it in him to be mad at the small creature who was--obviously--trying its best.

 

Frowning slightly, he reached out with his free hand and ran a finger under the spirit animal’s chin. It made a small, happy, purring noise, and its eyes shut. His frown deepened as he felt his heart melt a little at the sight. _Stupidly adorable beastie_.

 

Irritated at his own enjoyment, he covered his eyes with his free hand and let his shoulders slump. _It’s true_ , he thought, _I’m verifiably insane._

 

“Break time.”

 

Sanji gingerly lowered himself to the floor of the tunnel and carefully propped his legs on a rock so that they were elevated--no sense in draining himself dry with the aid of gravity.

 

\- - -

 

Zoro followed the ridiculously fluffy tail of the fox through the dark until the stupid creature reached a dead end. _Just like its stupid human_.

 

The polished blue-green stone came to a tall, elaborate wall which was decorated in depictions of all sorts of fauna with various ridiculous looking humans. “Must have been the crew.”

 

Zoro snorted and tried pushing at the wall. He was unsurprised to find it solid. He looked down at the fox, which had finally dropped his robe, and was delicately washing itself. _Preens like its stupid human, too_.

 

“Oi!”

 

The fox stopped its grooming for long enough to look up at Zoro, and the swordsman found himself consciously trying to avoid comparing the flat stare of the fox to that of his tiger.

 

“Yeah. Okay. Through here, right?”

 

Drawing both Sandai Kitetsu and Shusui, Zoro held both aloft and parallel to each other facing the stone. With a low breath out, Zoro rotated his wrists, cutting into the stone with the tips of the blades as though it were soft butter. Once each sword’s tip was shallowly sunk in the wall, he shut his eyes and concentrated on focusing Observation Haki through nitoryu. The maze of passageways, hidden doors, pitfalls, ruins, and the central fort appeared in his minds’ eye--connected through the rock and rubble. Sure, the wall was a secret door, _that made sense_.

 

Taking several deep and steady breathes, Zoro’s muscles bunched, and with blinding speed he drew shallow, slow, cuts in the face of the wall. He rotated the blades so they were facing inwards at angles, and drew them together and across the central part of the hidden door: a clean X cut in the rock.  
  
At the end of the arc, both blades crossed in front of him, Zoro took a deep breath, and then burst into a second blur of movement. An arc of metal, a flash of steel, and the stone before him disintegrated into a heap of blue-green sand at his feet.

 

Pleased with his assessment of the integrity of the structure, he sheathed the swords and picked up his discarded robe. Without pausing, he walked across the small pile of green-blue sand that was spread on the ground around the door.

 

He pulled on his robe and glanced down just in time to see the fox look away rapidly and pretend it wasn’t interested. Zoro grinned sharply and began to ascend the stairs that had been on the other side of the door, “I’m going to leave you behind, Swirly.”

 

The fox darted past him, swishing its tail, and took the stairs two at a time. Zoro’s grin didn’t lessen as he watched the creature bound up and away. The fox was just as temperamental as the cook, but seemed less inclined to feign aloofness. It appreciated how badass he was: he could tell.  
  
The passage went on for quite a while. Whenever he found himself in a grand hall or room or chamber, the fox would appear--seemingly from thin air--and grab the hem of his robe in its teeth. Carefully, the creature would tug until he followed it back to the main staircase.

 

“Are you leading me to the Love Cook?”  
  
“...”

 

“Well, I’ll assume you’re taking me to him.”

 

After a brief pause, Zoro frowned, “He’s fine, right? You didn’t leave him because--”

 

The fox spun around on the stair, so that it could face him, and growled. He flinched back--his body reacting to the bared teeth and aggressive body language of the animal, “Yeah. I, okay, you’re--he--is not weak, just… Aren't you supposed to stay with your human?”

 

The fox sniffed--its demeanor completely changed from before--and leapt up to Zoro’s shoulder. He blinked at the animal, and startled for a second time when it rubbed the top of its head against his jawline. He grunted, “I--yes--okay, hello.”

 

His hands came up to grab the beast by the scruff of its neck, but before he could will himself to snatch up the fox to throw it away, he found himself enjoying the weight and scent of the creature across his shoulders. Instead of snagging the spirit animal so that he could toss it away, he found his hand had rested lightly on its back, and his fingers were rubbing gently at the soft fur. _It’s so soft_.

 

Zoro cleared his throat, “Well.”

 

His hand rotated so that he could scratch the creature around the hinge of its jaw, “I suppose that if you’re so lazy that you can’t walk, there’s not much I can do about you catching a ride. You’d probably just get lost on your own.”

 

The fox nipped softly at the top of his ear and settled. He blushed hotly and wondered if being seen in such close proximity to another person’s spirit animal was as telling as he thought it might be. It felt like it should be: the contact that he had with the animal was more than warm and more than soft. The feeling that the spirit animal projected was one of deep caring, edged with a nobility which Zoro found himself surprised he was enjoying. It was a knowing hand on the shoulder, a blinding smile, and an energetic certainty that rivaled Luffy. It felt incredibly personal. It felt incredible. It felt like the missing puzzle piece had been returned to him.

 

As they continued, the fox yipped and bit at his ear to keep him “on track,” and he grunted in response. _Insistent and stubborn, too._

 

Hearing voices ahead of him, he paused and drew Shusui. Moving silently, he crept up the stairwell, listening. He approached a panel in the side of the staircase that looked like another secret door.

 

“You’re saying that the key is down there? So it’s specifically a trap for ‘Fruit users?”

 

This was followed by an indistinct murmur, and Zoro had a sinking suspicion about where the damn fox had led him. He sheathed his blade, and turned his head to glare at his shoulder where the fox was lazing. The beast looked up at him without moving its head, and he snorted.

 

“Of course you lead me to the women. Why would I think that you were taking me to _Sanji_ ? He’s just your stupid _male_ human. But no, you lead me to the Witch and Robin.”

 

The fox growled halfheartedly, and Zoro smiled. At least it was more honest than its counterpart. Finding the edge of the panel, he dug his fingers into the lip of the door and pried it open. Tossing the worthless “door” aside, he stepped through the threshold.

 

Immediately on the other side of the door he encountered a thick, heavy, tapestry. He pushed it aside, and found himself standing on a thin strip of rock between two large pits with bladed pendulums swinging perpendicular to the walls. Robin was standing on the far side of one pit, and Nami was at the far side of the other pit, but unlike Robin--who seemed casually interested in the wall she was inspecting--Nami was gripping the floor with her arms, her body and legs dangling into the pit, and her back just inches from the swinging blade. _Must be seastone_.

 

Both women blinked at his sudden appearance. Robin recovering quickly, and Nami--spotting aid where previously there was none--shouted at him. _When he had been listening she hadn’t sounded like she was in distress_ .   
  
“Zoro! Jump over here and help me up! The spring trap pushed me back. I can’t quite get the lightning to hit it--the damn thing activates too quickly, and there’s nothing Robin can do with all these ‘Fruit user specific traps.”

 

Zoro grunted, timed his jump to avoid the bladed pendulum, and turned his attention to Nami. As he was preparing to help hoist her into a standing position, something slammed into him, and sent him backwards into the path of the scything pendulum and above the deep pit. _Can’t fall. It’ll probably have spikes_.

 

With a show of superhuman strength, gained from years of training, Zoro threw a hand forward at the flat of the blade, and then reached under the blade with his other arm and brought his other hand up so he was gripping either side of the scythe. When his momentum threatened to pull him off the caught blade, he gripped and lunged upwards, biting the sharp edge. _Ha!_

 

Carefully, he contorted and hooked an arm over the top of the pole which swung the blade back and forth and hoisted himself onto the top of the blade. He eyed the dark pit beneath him, and then glared at the weird “stamp” mechanism which was retracting into the wall it had come from.

 

“Zoro, you idiot! I just said it was a push trap.”

 

Glaring at the woman--now he realized that the reason she hadn’t pulled herself up out of the hole was because she didn’t have a way to deal with the trap--he waited and jumped again. This time, expecting the trap, he drew and diced.

 

Not very elegant, but incredibly effective, the push trap split down the center and, launched itself at the pendulum behind him: smashing into the blade: it took both the blade and the larger part of the trap down into the pit below.

 

Zoro turned around, reached down, and grabbed Nami by her shorts (last time he had picked her up, he had grabbed her by the top, and she had screeched at him for a week), and tossed her up over his shoulder into the hallway. This was accompanied by a shriek--maybe it was just clothing that she was worried about; if she wore things that were of more substance, she wouldn’t have to worry about people accidentally breaking them when they threw her places--and then a smack to the back of his head.

 

Having doled out her punishment, she dusted off her hands, matter-of-factly stated, “Thanks.” And then put her hands on her hips and turned her attention to Robin. After considering briefly, she turned back to him.

 

“Here,” she held out the end of a long rope, “help me secure this so that Robin can get across without touching the center path: it’s enameled in seastone.”  
  
The fox jumped from his shoulders, snatched up the end of the rope in its mouth, and proceeded to circle around Zoro.

 

Nami couldn’t stop the bubbly laughter which surfaced at the put-upon Zoro being wrapped up snug by the enthusiastic fox. Zoro glowered.

 

Nami smiled sweetly down at the fox, “That’ll do, thank you.” And tossed the other end of the rope across the pit, over the other swinging pendulum, to a patiently waiting Robin on the far side.

 

After Robin had made her way over, and Nami had re-coiled the rope, the three of them set off down the hallway together.

 

“So… Has Sanji’s fox been with you this whole time?”

 

Zoro eyed the dangerous woman with the orange hair, and considered the benefits of keeping his mouth shut.  ‘ _It was trying to kill me.’_ Didn’t seem very impressive, but neither did, _‘Its been leading me around.’_ Mysteriously, it was Robin who answered before he could formulate a usable response.

 

“I’m sure that it has been with him as long as it has been able. It seems rather attached.” Robin cocked her head to the side and smiled mysteriously at Zoro, “Although I _am_ surprised that it's been allowed to lay across his shoulders.”

 

“It’s lazy. What are you two doing?” He didn’t bother asking where Sanji was: the idiot had gotten himself separated from the group. Same as Luffy.

 

“Helping Brook.” Nami crossed her arms and sighed. Zoro could imagine that there was more to it, but as long as they explained what needed doing, he’d follow.

 

Having decided that a longer explanation was not necessary (or perhaps _pointless_ with Zoro), Nami continued, “Come on. We’re almost to the pool. You’ll need to do the swimming, the current is supposed to be particularly nasty, and someone needs to hit the switch.”

 

Zoro grunted at Nami’s declaration and followed her deeper into the fort.

 

Robin leaned over, “The pool is lined with seastone, and the switch is made of precious minerals. Hopefully you won’t drown; we’d never be able to recover your body.”

 

Zoro crossed his arms as he walked, “I’m not risking my life for some half-assed treas--”

 

Nami spun on a heel and pointed directly into Zoro’s face, making him go briefly cross-eyed, “Brook is trapped in a wall, and Usopp is guarding his dead body, so you need to get the thing which gets him out. It’s only lucky for me that there’s treasure here. We’ve been completely thrown off-track.”

 

 _Wasn’t Brook’s body already dead?_ “Why don’t you cut him out?”

 

“I’m afraid that he has become part of the wall, Zoro-san. Cutting the wall would result in chopping his soul in two, and even if someone is immortal in body, I doubt he could survive the damage to his true self.”

 

Zoro eyed Robin, and shared a brief--silent--moment with Nami where they acknowledged the morbid nature of their archeologist.

 

Ahead of them, Zoro could see light shards refracted across the walls. They had arrived at the pool.

 

The edge of the pool, from where the light was reflecting,  revealed a deep cylinder filled with cold clear water, above which hung a glass bowl the size of a large chair. In the center of the bowl was a multicolored gem the size of his fist.

 

The fox jumped down from his shoulders and sat about a foot away from the edge of the pool.

 

Robin crossed her arms across her chest, and with a burst of petals, legs and arms tangled together and grasped the floor and walls--careful to not touch the edges of the pool, the water itself, or the crystal ball--until they formed a weird staircase made of flesh and limbs up to the bowl.

 

Nami scrambled up the makeshift staircase and leapt into the bowl with a clatter of heels, elbows, jewelry, and accessories. She slid down the inside, and placed her hands gingerly on either side of the stone, and looked back to “Zoro, you ready?”

 

Taking off his robe and dumping it beside the pool, he asked Robin, “What am I looking for?”

 

Zoro took off his boots as Robin considered the answer, “You should know it when you see it. It’ll be flat, and look like part of a puzzle. There should be a stylized carving on it… It may feel strange. It will be at the center of the bottom of the pool. It’s the key needed to free Brook’s soul from the wall.”  


Zoro glanced at the woman, but decided against asking quesitons.  
  
“Good luck, Zoro”

 

Zoro grunted and looked up at Nami, “Start it.”

 

Nami braced her heels against the glass bowl and pulled the stone up out of the bottom. There was a loud sound, akin to a wind tunnel, and the water inside the pool began to spin. Rising up out of the pool, with the intensity of gale force winds, the vortex of air plunged down through the water: a tornado of air surrounded by walls of rapidly spinning water.

 

Zoro glared at the water. _Just my luck._ And jumped in.

 

The cold and the current slammed into him and took his breath away. His body was spun around like a top, and whipped in uncontrolled circles.

 

With an effort of will, and no small feat of strength, Zoro began to swim with the current.

 

 _At least it’s easy to breathe with the vortex in the middle, and it isn’t as cold as the damn waterfall_.

 

Soon, he was gripping the floor of the pool and searching for the puzzle piece that would fix Brook’s odd predicament. Squinting against the onslaught, he could see a round disc sitting at the center of the vortex. _That’d be it_.

 

The disc was a thick jade plate with a raised carving of two featureless humans sitting back-to-back inside a circle. The person on the left of the plate held their hands cupped in front of them, and a stream of water poured between their fingers--lines of raised jade which interwove and twisted away from the figure until they blended with the abstract design which edged the plate. The other figure, similarly, held their hands cupped in front of them, but it was a smoking flame which they cradled. The smoke wove up and outward; joining the design in the same manner that the water did on the opposite side of the disc.

 

Something about the disc bothered him, but he didn’t have the time to consider what it was. It was unsettling. _They weren’t..._

 

Shutting his eyes against the torrent of water, he could hear Nami yelling something far above. _Yeah, okay,_ ‘It may feel strange.’

 

 _Right_.

 

Gritting his teeth against the pressure, he freed one of his hands, and swallowed a lungful of water from the resulting whiplash as the cycling water spun him around. The force of the water threatened to yank his shoulder out of its socket, and he choked, coughed, and slammed his free hand--fist first--into the plate. The pretty jade disc shattered under the force of the blow. There was a sliver of bright white under the bits of broken fresco, and he let go in order to snatch up what the decorative plate had been hiding.

 

His hand closed over the white shard, and the current drug him towards the top of the pool.

 

“Nami! Now!”

 

His nose filled with water and he shut his eyes against the sudden influx of liquid. He ducked his head, smashed and rolled against one of the seastone polished walls, and then was spat out of the water and into the air. He landed awkwardly on the edge of the pool and yelled when his hip cracked against the ground. In a graceless thrashing of limbs, Zoro hauled himself away from the edge of the water.

 

After vomiting and coughing up all the water he had managed to breathe, he rolled onto his back and gulped in thankful lungfuls of air. Robin came into his view, and held out her hand. He held out the white disc that had been trapped at the bottom of the pool, and she plucked it from his hand to examine it.

 

His hand landed with a _splat_ and he glanced around the room. The water had returned to its pre-mailstrom state. Nami was dropping down from the ceiling bowl--two gems, each the size of one of his fists, in her hands. The fox had been careful to stay out of his way, and was now watching Robin carefully.

 

Zoro grinned. _Revenge isn’t sweet like candy, it’s best when it's harsh and bitter: everything about a good sake except being dry. No, revenge was best if cold and wet._ He reached out while the fox was distracted and grabbed it up by the rough of its neck and tossed it into the pool. There was a harsh yip and a large splash. Dejectedly, the fox paddled in the center of the pool. Zoro grinned.

 

Nami shot Zoro a look, “Was that really necessary? What if the pool did bad things to spirit animals?”

 

Zoro grinned at the drenched fox. He could almost see Sanji grinding his teeth around a smoking ember. “It’s perfectly safe.”

 

Robin looked up from the disc she was inspecting, “The trap for spirit animals may have broken when Zoro took the key, but the fox still can’t touch the edges of the pool. I dare say that Sanji would be different if his spirit animal drowned to death.”

 

Zoro stubbornly sat up and crossed his arms. _Stupid creature would be fine_ . _He could_ Air Walk _. Or, at least, Sanji could._

 

Nami smacked Zoro in the back of the head and fished the drenched fox out of the pool. Instead of basking in her arms, however, the beast jumped down quickly, ran over to Zoro’s robe, and burrowed into the folds. “Oi!”

 

Nami covered a grin and rolled her eyes as she shoved her new jewels into her pockets, “Let’s get going. We can’t leave Brook like that. It’s weird seeing his body all lifeless.”

 

All present let this declaration sink in. Zoro looked somewhat pained. Robin blinked as her mind answered with a morbid slew of observations. Silence reigned.

 

Nami slapped her forehead, muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “Yo-ho-ho.” And stomped off towards her trapped nakama.

 

\- - -

 

Sanji heard the shout before he saw anything.

 

Half dazed and shivering from an injury-induced chill, he opened his eyes and peeked out of his cave to see a red-shirted body flying downward through the air.

 

It was embarrassing how long it took him to realize that the blur of red and blue was--in fact--his captain.

 

Sanji scrambled to the edge of the cave and shouted “Luffy!”  
  
Luffy’s yell, which hadn’t consisted of actual words, morphed into “--aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanji!” and a wobbly rubber arm came flying up towards his perch, but missed the mark. Sanji lunged to catch Luffy’s hand, but the hand slapped against his fingers and slid off.

 

His earlier thoughts came back to him, ‘... _but the Marimo always ends up where he’s_ needed _.’_

 

Sanji angrily sighed at his luck, levered himself up to his feet, flicked his spent cigarette butt away, growled a curse at the dragon around his neck, and dove towards the ocean far below.

 

There was a big splash as Luffy hit the water. Sanji reached his hands out to Sky Walk ( _Sky Handstand_?) and lessen his own impact. There was a brief moment where he was certain he saw Luffy spread out like a pancake and then the rubber boy was rapidly sinking.

 

“ _Shit._ ”

 

Sanji broke the surface of the water, gasped out half his air in surprise as the salt water invaded his leg wounds, and dove.

 

He grabbed Luffy, yanked the sinking hammer-boy close to his body, and kicked towards the surface. The water filled with red. _Sharks can smell blood up to 400 meters away._

 

_Thanks brain._

 

Sanji had a terrible moment when the body of a shark appeared through the red clouds in the water, and he was convinced that, not only had he managed to summon a shark with his negative thoughts, but he would have to fight off a shark, in the water, while suffering from severe blood loss, _and_ pulling Luffy to the surface. And then he remembered that he had Zoro’s spirit animal with him. Which was a shark. _Asshole._

 

He broke the surface with a gasp and pulled Luffy’s head out of the water. He went to step up into the air and quickly thought better of it--it was doubtful his legs would support his weight. Instead, he elbowed Luffy sharply in the chest and his captain hacked up a good portion of seawater.

 

The shark swam up to Sanji, and he looped a hand over the beast’s back, leveraging as much of Luffy onto the beast’s back as you could. The mist above them blocked all hope he might have that he’d be able to navigate, and he--once again--left the navigating to the spirit animal underneath him.

 

He had incorrectly thought he was cold earlier, the ocean proved that _now_ he was cold.

 

It was eerily quiet under the fog. The water had nothing to lap against, the waves rolling unhindered and silent. The island, too distant to hear the usual calls of gulls. Sanji was thankful that in this horrible place between blood-red ocean and air there were no crashing waves. They didn’t usually bother him, but he had a suspicion that this time his mental barriers--his strong mental fortitude--would fail him, and he’d suddenly be on a rock; some fifteen years in the past.

 

 _Dying of hypothermia is probably a lot quicker than dying of starvation_.

 

He jerked upright when an incomprehensible moan started from Luffy’s throat and became gurgling as the dark-haired man slipped under the surface of the water. _Huh, ‘man’ in reference to Luffy: how odd. But true. Painfully true after those two years apart. Now Zoro? Zoro had always been a man, but Luffy always seemed more like a wonder boy…_

 

Shaking his head to clear the meandering thoughts, Sanji pulled Luffy back on top of the shark. He was losing time. How long had he been in the water, under the fog? “Shitty rubber. Concentrate on the shark: its shitty human should be standing on dry land.”

 

As though his words had summoned the thought, Sanji had a flash of deep feeling: _All was as it should be. The Strawhats were safe and… Most of the Strawhats were safe._

 

Sanji blinked and readjusted his grip on the shark.

 

 _He was squished against an impossibly hard chest that was warm and smelled like lazy afternoons on the lawn of the Sunny Go. It was more damp than he would have liked, but that was a small price to pay for the comfort that radiated from the large body like a furnace._ When did ‘home’ start smelling like steel and earth? Steel, earth, and blood.

 

 _‘Brook would be coming back to himself soon. He’d probably have to go find the others. Sanji was probably lost_ , [ _the idiot_ ] _was always so sure of_ not _being lost._ [ _Zoro_ ] _needed to find him. They always found each other. That was how it worked. And sometimes… They got to stay together.’_

 

Sanji grit teeth. _Bloody spirit animals._ He had no desire to invade someone else’s _\--_

 

_’cocky bastard always running off alone, fighting stupidly powerful enemies, finding weird shit, attempting to nobly sacrifice himself for something dumb’_

 

 _\--_ thoughts.

 

“I don’t want to hear that from you, you shitty swordsman!”

 

There was a slurring of sound from Luffy as he attempted to respond, but the effect of the ocean was too great, and the rubber man failed to articulate whatever he was attempting to say.

 

Maybe Sanji’d get lucky, and he’d forget the weird, almost telepathic, moment. Or maybe he could write it all off as a fever dream _\--Thank the five seas that the crew had never been hit with something that_ actually _gave them telepathy.--_ just a hallucination brought on by the fog and shitty spirit animals.

 

Gritting his teeth, Sanji gripped the shark, pulled himself higher out of the water, and adjusted his hold on Luffy.

 

“Don’t try to speak, dumbass.”

 

\- - -

 

Zoro stood and looked up at the massive wall which held Brook, and looked at Usopp.

 

“This isn’t the top of the mountain.”

 

Usopp looked at him as though Zoro was missing some very important brain cells. Zoro returned the look, and inaudibly ‘ _tsked._ ’

 

Usopp opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, and directed his attention to Robin who was holding out a white disc. The sniper walked forward and took the disc in his hands to examine it--Zoro’s insanity momentarily forgotten.

 

Zoro turned back towards the wall. It looked like Brook would get his body back; which was good because Nami had been dead-right: Brook looking lifeless was weird. _Now they just needed to find everyone else. Sanji was probably lost somewhere and would need Zoro to find him. Idiot always ran off and got into all sorts of trouble._

 

Zoro blinked and shook his head. Something was off. It was a queasy feeling... The feeling you got when someone else described being ill: _you_ weren’t sick, but you felt nauseous thinking about it.

 

Zoro checked his blades and turned to get his bearings. He resolutely ignored the way his mind focused on thoughts of the missing chef.

 

The fox, which had spitefully been riding under Zoro’s robes and against his chest, squirmed and made a small wailing noise. It shivered, and Zoro looked down and raised an eyebrow at the wet animal, “Oi--”

 

The animal looked up at him, and he was struck by the idea that… Sanji was cold. Very, very cold. Zoro frowned down at the small creature, took a slow breath, and brought up his hands and crossed his arms in front of his body, pulling the fox up and squashing it against his chest. At least Zoro was warm.

 

Robin’s voice startled him more than he would have liked to admit, “Zoro…?”

 

He turned towards her. Robin’s eyes widened at the expression that had crossed his face. Quickly, he schooled his features to something more neutral.

 

Robin’s gaze flicked down to the trembling fox in Zoro’s arms. “Is he…?”

 

Zoro grunted, “Seems cold.”

 

Robin bit her lower lip, and looked from the fox to Zoro and back again. Eventually, she nodded, “You would know, Swordsman-san.”

  
During their brief exchange, Usopp had managed to place the white disc--just so--and free Brook’s soul from the wall. Usopp helped Brook to his feet, and the skeleton was looking at the wall curiously.

 

After insuring that his friend was up and moving again, Usopp turned to the others, “Now what?”

 

Nami smiled, raised a clenched fist, and her nakama could easily picture the Berī burning in her eyes, “We find that treasure.”

 

Zoro looked down at the shivering fox and considered.

 

“I found it close to the ship.”

 

Nami grinned and pointed towards the top of the mountain, “That way!”

 

“Oi!”

 

Usopp reached over and patted Zoro on the shoulder, “It’s okay. Not everyone can have as great a sense of direction as the Great Warrior of the Sea, Usopp.”

 

“ _Che_.”

 

As the group walked towards the summit, Zoro looked down at the shivering fox in his arms, and frowned as he caught a slightly metallic smell: blood. Something wasn’t right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I thought I'd finally finish this dang thing, and found that I had never posted this chapter! No promises about when another chapter will happen, but gosh darn it if I'm not going to do my best. (Oh my heavens I went back and re-read the first bit so that I could jump into the story all refreshed, and I am so sorry for all the tense problems. Dear lord, you all have amazing patience.)
> 
> I want to thank all 58 folks who left Kudos, and AMMO121, kitako_kitten, cosmicGeologist, Doffman, Doggyband, op_gryphon978, Reliz, Mesonoxian, MotherNature, goldensuzaku, Galaxy_Particles, wowzers44, BrightSun, Rika_chan24, Gentle Smiles (wwhateverAmpora), Yueli, sevvy23, Birds_without_color, Unwanted_Guest, saviorofthedreamingdead, Missyinying, rz_jocelyn, GalexisSpringbreeze, Animatedpretzel, Moony_PirateKing, blkldyNW (ebeatle2000), cecilquangdong, Nira, Angyiel, Rhaynbowbrite, lianaSx2 (Semisemi), Twinkledash, Ellarian, Asphen, the3vilnom, Aurilyn, interruptedPharos, oohinata, Hexenbalg, NamelessAnami, daisiesonice, MagnificientSkyGod, noohli, pajamaly, order_of_chaos, yaoifanfake, Hoffspring, anadiangelo, and aScePheonix. 
> 
> You guys might not realize it, but every little positive reinforcement has helped me to continue to write, and has helped me continue to live, and I am overwhelmed by the support. I'm glad you enjoyed some part of what I have written, and I hope everyone is doing wonderfully! <3 <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! ^_^


End file.
